Attached At The Hit
by stephluvvsyou
Summary: Let the bodies hit the floor.
1. Aftermath

**AN : Hey everyone! Just stopping by for a moment to upload the first part of a new story. I've been getting the most incredible inspiration to write this, and it's extremely different than my other SLODeck stories so far. It's not really fluffy or romantic, it's just kind of different overall. I hope that it's something you guys can all enjoy, seeing as it's a completely different extreme. For those of you who read What Happens On Deck, no worries! I will continue writing that one as well, but if inspiration continues to pour out for this story I might focus on this one a little more. But I will do my best to go back and forth between the two. :) Also, wanted to let everyone know that I'm sure the boys will be a little bit out of character, especially in the roles I've put them in. I tried to write in suttle reminders and hints that they still have their quirks. But I don't know how I did with it. So...**

**WARNING : This story will contain some _extremely _mature content. You have been warned! **

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_Disclaimer : I do not own The Suite Life On Deck or any of the characters associated._

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Attached At The Hit

Part One - Aftermath

**X**

"Fall back you fucking moron! FALL BACK!" Zack screamed, as he leaped over the marble counter top in the middle of what used to be a very nice kitchen. Of course, the fact that everything was now being shot to shambles was contributing greatly to it's destruction, and he was still feeling the burning graze of a stray bullet on the side of his left cheek, as he ducked into cover.

He sneered when he heard his younger sibling by mere seconds scoff at him, from his position, which was still in front of the counter, right in the line of fire. "Once again Zack, the fact that we're in this situation right now is your fault, and yours alone. If you'd ever read over any of the paperwork at all, you'd have managed to figure out that this guy had an extremely well placed security system." Cody fired some rounds out of his .44 Magnum into the back of a sofa, which currently some poorly accurate chumps in black suits were hiding. Feathers and stuffing flew everywhere, blanketing and filling the air with a white, fluffy mass.

Cody emptied the remainder of his clip into the back of the couch, and after the trigger clicked a couple times without any firepower behind it, he frowned towards his gun, and dropped the empty clip out of the bottom of it. He glanced up at the couch, noticing a couple of the black suits were peeking out to look towards him, wondering whether or not it was their turn to fire. Cody pulled a new clip out of his pocket, but before he could load his gun, he felt an extremely rough grip on the back of his collar. He was yanked backwards harshly, losing his grip on the clip and the gun, and they tumbled to the floor as he was dragged on his backside over the counter. He hit the floor behind the counter, and did his best to regain his breath as he glared at his brother, who was currently re-loading both of his weapons.

"That was my favorite gun!" Cody snapped at him, as he moved into a sitting position and pulled out his back up. He immediately went to work loading it.

Zack rolled his eyes as he finished popping his last ammunition clip into his weapon, and cocked it back. "Whatever Grumpy Pants. How many are still over there?"

"Four." Cody replied, still hints of annoyance in his voice as he kept his attention focused downward, "Three behind the sofa, one behind the bookshelf holding the potted plant."

"Well this is clock work. This guy doesn't have as many henchman as I figured he would." Zack replied, positioning himself to jump up for a quick kill or two. He popped up and fired at an unsuspecting black suit, and landed two bullets into him. One in the neck and the other in the chest, before dropping back down to dodge the barrage of bullets that he was certain, would follow.

Sure enough, bullets were flying, but the twins were unflinching as shards of tile and glass rained into their hair and onto their shoulders. Cody finished loading his backup pistol and cocked it, before glancing over at his brother. "This guy's a lawyer, Zack. How many henchman do you really think he can afford?"

"Hey, lawyers used to be the high ups in society." Zack argued casually, watching Cody peek his head around the side of the counter.

Cody aimed his pistol and fired at the suit behind the bookcase, but the only result it produced was killing the potted plant on the top. He whipped back around the side as more bullets nicked the sides of the counter, and he slammed his gun onto the floor beside him, "Damn it, this gun's accuracy is for shit!"

"Then why the hell do you still carry it?" Zack pondered, taking a moment to smirk at the furious boy beside him.

"Because." Cody began, glaring over at Zack again, "I'm never usually _forced _to drop my primary."

Zack sighed, before plopping his extra '45 into Cody's lap. "Borrow mine until you get yours back, crybaby."

"Borrow mine until you get yours back, crybaby." Cody mocked sarcastically, cocking his head from side to side.

Zack shot daggers towards him, "Oh, you want to do this right now?"

"Well you know what Zack, at least I'm not the one who always seems to-"

"Oh here we go again with your 'holier than thou' bullshit. You know what? I don't have to take-"

"You can shut up anytime with your attitude, I'm so sick of you always-"

The twins continued to argue in the midst of the chaos, which was actually an often occurrence for them despite the circumstances they were usually in at the time.

"You know what?" Zack snapped as he stood up in full view, his focus solely on his brother at this point, "You keep this up and I just might put a bullet in your ass this time, cause I'm-"

"Oh, so you're going to shoot me now?" Cody retorted, as he stood up as well, "Well let me tell you something, I don't have to listen to your nonsense about-"

The black suits were at this point, completely baffled by this display. It's like the 2 guys that were hiding behind the counter seconds ago from the bullets they'd intended to take their lives, weren't even concerned anymore by the fact that there were still three of them standing and wanting them dead.

"Maybe if you'd set aside you're immaturity for a mere moment, we would actually-" Cody was arguing, Zack's secondary weapon in his right hand as he flailed it around spastically.

"_I'm_ immature?" Zack snapped, interrupting Cody who seemed to be carrying on like a mad man. "At least I'm not pissing and moaning over a fucking gun!"

"Don't you dare talk about Lucy in that manner! You _know_ I love that gun and-"

It was as if their minds were one, because as soon as they noticed out of the corner of their eyes, that the black suits were in the process of raising their weapons again, they both turned and fired at the three of them. Not only did they succeed in dropping them all, but they also finished destroying the rest of the living area. The sounds of lifeless bodies impacted the ground, and silence swept over them as the remainder of the empty bullet casings clinked across the kitchen tile behind them. They glared at each other, but Cody wasted no time in darting around the side and retrieving his Mag. He examined it for any signs of damage, and when he noticed all was okay, not even a single, solitary scuff, he placed a light kiss on the barrel.

Zack rolled his eyes, before dropping the empty clip out of his gun, and reaching for more ammo. He reloaded quickly this time, as he skulked around the side of the counter, crunching debris and already shattered glass under his shoes. He snatched his secondary out of Cody's grip, which he didn't seem to notice because he was still too busy being infatuated by his reclaimed gun, as if they'd been separated for years rather than moments. After re-prepping his backup, he tucked both weapons away, one in his back pocket, and the other under his shirt, at his side, before stalking into the living area to glance over the damage. He shook his head slightly at the sight of the four dead men on the ground, before kneeling down beside one of the bodies. "Oooh." he told himself, before sticking out his thumb and pointer finger, and aiming towards the face of the dead man. "Right in the jaw." He folded his thumb down as if pressing a trigger. "Ka-plow."

Cody had finally put his weapon away and was kneeling down over one of the other men, rifling through his pockets. "You know, you'd think there'd be some sort of ID here. But this guy doesn't even have a wallet."

Zack glanced towards his brother before shrugging, "Some guys prefer to be nobody's." He stood up and looked around the area again. Nothing in this room would be salvaged. "These guys probably don't belong to anything anyway. Just a bunch of last minute chumps from a struggling corporate business no doubt, hired to be bodyguards." He kicked at the limp leg of one of the suits. "Poor guys probably thought they were being paid a fortune for this."

"Yeah..." Cody replied, trailing off as he stood and headed towards the staircase, "I hope nobody here was a father."

"Hey." Zack piped in immediately, following his brother as they both started climbing the stairs, "We don't get paid to worry about whether or not they're fathers."

"Mm, true." Cody responded, as he tilted his head slightly to the side while answering.

Once they made it to the top of the staircase, they pulled out their weapons again, but kept them at their sides as they peeked around the corner to the hallway, making sure there were no more black suits waiting for them. After concluding the hall was empty, they stepped out non-chalantly, and advanced towards the door of the master bedroom. They knew exactly where it was, seeing as they'd glanced briefly at a blue print before coming. Still, that hadn't stopped Zack from setting off the security alarm. They'd expected cops to show up. But what they got instead was six lousy shooters who looked like they were trying a little too hard to be the Men In Black.

"Hundred bucks says he's hiding in the closet." Cody mumbled, as he shot a sideways look at Zack.

They slowed their pace as they reached the door.

"You're on." Zack said, holding out his hand to shake on it, "Because my intuition tells me he's hiding in the shower of the bathroom."

Cody raised an eyebrow, and nodded, before grasping Zack's hand with his. The two gave each other a quick shake, before cocking their guns, raising them up, barrel pointed towards the ceiling, and with one, fluid, strong kick, Cody broke through the locked double doors to the master bedroom. They had every corner scoped out and inspected within seconds, and Zack pondered towards the closet, while Cody headed into the bathroom. Anytime they made bets like this, they always inspected the opposite's choice. It was tradition.

"Mister Petersonnnn." Zack called out casually and playfully, as he approached the closet door. He kept his eyes glued towards it for any signs of bumping against it, or shaking of the doorknob.

He heard Cody flinging open the shower curtain from inside the bathroom, and immediately following; he heard a muffled click sound come from the inside of the closet. He glanced at the ground for a moment and sighed. "Cody you were right." he called out. "We got a closet dweller."

"Knew it." Cody stated, as he approached the other side of the closet door, the classic, all-knowing smirk on his face.

They were on opposite sides of the door, and both of them had fallen silent. Zack motioned towards the door with his thumb, before mouthing the word 'firearm' towards Cody. Cody rolled his eyes, shaking his head slightly as he took a couple steps back from the wall. He lifted his gun, aiming at the closed door. He tilted up slightly, and then to the left a mere inch, before pulling the trigger.

The bullet from Cody's gun pierced through the wooden door, and a loud cry of pain emitted out from the other side of the door. They heard a thud hit against the door as it shook. Zack reached over, turning the doorknob, and upon opening up the closet, a man tumbled out onto his back, moaning because the hand that he was just holding his gun with had damn near been taken off.

Cody retrieved the dropped gun from the floor right inside the closet, carefully, because he hated touching other peoples blood, or having other people's blood on him at all for that matter. Of course, sometimes there was just nothing you could do about it. "Damn I'm a good shot." he bragged, as Zack folded his arms across his chest, and glared down at the wounded Mr. Peterson.

"Were you planning on shooting us with that wimpy piece of shit?" Zack asked, pointing towards the weapon for a second, before folding his arm back into his other one.

"Well I wasn't really going to, I was just-ahh." The man grunted, as he held his throbbing hand to his chest, attempting to somehow stop it from hurting so bad.

Cody tucked the retrieved weapon into his back pocket quickly, before reaching into the opposite pocket, and pulling out his travel-sized bottle of hand sanitizer. After applying it, he felt much better, and he glanced towards he and his brother's target again. "Mr. Peterson you're a man of business. You should know better than to lie to someone whose about to kill you."

"Yeah." Zack piped in, as stepped forward and aimed his weapon at the man's head, "And just FYI, in your next life, don't cheat on your wife. She may pay to have you killed for it." he pulled the trigger.

**X**

"Dude, throw that fucking thing in the trash. I'm tired of hearing you bitch about how inaccurate it is." Zack stated, as he and Cody sat around their beds of a dimly lit hotel room.

The shades to the windows were drawn, and both boys had their guns splayed out across their separate beds. They'd already showered, and were cleaning their prized weapons. The weapons that had taken so many lives. Cleaning out, to Zack, meant simply wiping the chambers down to get any leftover residue out, then re-loading. To Cody, it was much more thorough. He kept his guns in the highest tip-top shape he possibly could, and while Zack loved his weapons just as much, Cody was a stickler for cleanliness and appearance. Had been since the day their mother popped them both out.

There was a sole lamp on in the room, seeing as there was a slight bit of daylight left outside and a few rays were peeking through the cracks in the blinds. Plus, they never had preferred to work in completely illuminated areas. Against the wall opposite their beds was the room's computer desk, which was currently engulfed with a laptop, both their cell phones, a receiver, and a great amount of cords and wires.

Cody huffed towards Zack as he pulled the clip out of the said weapon, "I keep it for emergencies."

"Whatever." Zack murmured, and his attention focused back down on his primary .45, "I don't feel like arguing about it right now."

Cody held up his pistol in the light of the lamp and sighed, "Though I suppose I could always make Lucy my secondary and finally put my .500 Mag to some sort of use."

"Have you even fired a round out of that thing before?" Zack pondered, baffled by the fact that Cody was back stocking such a powerful weapon.

"I was saving it for a special occasion." Cody replied, not looking up, as he removed the silencer from the pistol that was now in question. "But," he sighed, "What the hell."

He tossed the worthless pistol into his gun bag, and rummaged around in it a bit, before retrieving another out of it. It was a thing of beauty.

"You're _so_ going to have to let me use that sometime bro." Zack mumbled as he stared at it in awe.

Cody frowned towards him, "No way." He motioned towards Zack's twin .45's with it, "You had the chance to trade those things out for one and you didn't do it."

Zack's jaw dropped slightly, "I wasn't going to part with these." He hugged them both to his chest.

Cody rolled his eyes just as there was a tapping on the door. Both boys made really quick work of hiding everything they could in just a mere moment. After all, they'd done it before. Once they'd hidden their weapons under the bed, Cody straightened out his plain white tee, and took quiet steps towards the door. He gazed out of the spy hole before unlocking the door and opening it up. He kept his arm propped on the door, blocking passage to the person who was waiting on the other side, but he gave her half a smile, "Mrs. Peterson." He greeted, before catching his error quickly, and adding, "Or…Miss…Peterson I guess."

She was in her mid-30's, and since meeting her this morning, Cody had wondered why the hell she'd married such an old man lawyer in the first place. Of course, the money, but she was in real estate. And she'd hired them. She obviously had full capability of supporting herself without the cheating-lawyer-husband. Or…ex husband.

Zack watched the display from his bedside. When Miss Peterson peeked her head around Cody's shoulder to glance at him, he gave her a slight wave. She gazed up at Cody again. Something seemed unstable about her. She was slightly pale, she was wearing sunglasses, and she had a bonnet/bandana covering her hair. "Can I please come in?"

Cody raised an eyebrow, before leaning out the door, over her shoulder and glancing both ways down the hall. When he had confirmed the coast was clear he stepped back and sighed, before motioning her inside with his outstretched arm.

Zack watched the woman walk through the doorway, and Cody shut it behind her, making sure to lock it as well. It was a rarity they would let their customers into their hotel rooms, but she was here to pay them, and Cody was a pushover, so.

Cody stood behind her as she took slow steps, arms crossed over his chest, and they watched her hesitate to take a seat on the end of his unoccupied bed. She finally did, carefully and slowly, and a moment of silence passed between the three of them.

Zack leaned towards her slightly, speaking in a low tone, "Are you-"

Even at the sound of his quiet voice, she jumped slightly, before pressing a hand to her chest and calming her heart.

Zack drew back and swallowed, before shooting a glance towards Cody.

After making eye contact, Cody tilted his head to the side a bit, almost as if to shake it, before he stepped forward and knelt in front of her, "Miss Peterson?"

Miss Peterson was glancing towards the floor, and when she picked her head up, Cody noticed a tear falling down her cheek. Great. She was an emotional, paranoid wreck. Nothing they hadn't dealt with, but something they certainly hated to deal with. They were the hit men, not the guidance counselors for afterwards. And she'd asked them to do it. It's not like she didn't know it.

She was in a slight state of shock though. Clients often didn't really weigh the consequences of what they were getting themselves into when they paid to have their spouse or family member, no matter what the circumstances were, killed.

"He deserved it…" she muttered, her voice cracking slightly as she spoke in a tone barely above a whisper. She looked Cody straight in the eyes, "Right?"

Zack watched Cody struggle to give Miss Peterson a response, and rolled his eyes, growing impatient at the situation already. He hopped up and shoved Cody out of the way, taking his place and kneeling in front of the woman. He grabbed her hand in his. "Of course he deserved it. He was cheating on you."

Miss Peterson, who'd been taken aback by Zack's sudden rush towards her, only nodded in response. She did her best not to sob, but it only caused her body to flinch every few seconds. "I just didn't think…I didn't…"

"Didn't what?" Zack asked, trying to get her to vent in any way possible so that they could get rid of her and move on with their night. "Didn't think it would really happen?"

It took a moment, but she nodded her head weakly.

"You'll probably feel like this for a couple weeks, but it'll pass." Zack replied, releasing her hand and standing up to his brother's side.

When she looked up at them again, Cody nodded towards her in confirmation.

Fifteen minutes later, they were walking out of the hotel to get Chinese food at the restaurant across from it.

"I am starving!" Zack voiced, as they scurried across the street after looking both directions for traffic.

Cody followed behind him, but remained quiet as they hopped up on the curb and stepped towards the entrance.

Zack glanced towards Cody over his shoulder, and stopped to turn on him, "Dude, what the hells the matter with you?" he questioned, "Are you still moping over that woman because she _asked_ us to do what we did? You've got to remember that we're just doing our job."

Cody sighed, "I know." He glanced towards the ground, "I just wish these people would think things through before they go and have someone off-ed."

He felt Zack's hand slap his left shoulder, and he glanced up at him.

"But, they never do." Zack reminded, as he held his arms out and stepped back slightly, "Not our problem."

"Know that too." Cody mumbled as he followed his brother into the restaurant.

He definitely did know. But it didn't make it any easier when clients showed up at their door in shock over the fate they'd just handed their recently deceased.

**X**

"Isn't there someone closer to take that assignment?" Zack exclaimed into the phone, as he paced the floor at the foot of both their beds. "I don't want to have to go through the motions of hiding my weapons just to get through a damned airport security check again!"

Cody had felt better about the Miss Peterson incident after he'd eaten. He didn't know for the life of him why he couldn't get the hang of things like that. Something about when a woman cried just dampened his day, but Zack? Zack had embraced this job perfectly, and all the aftermath as well. Clients were constantly getting upset over thinking they'd made a bad decision. But the realization always came after the deed was done, and Zack's favorite thing to say was, 'Well, they're already dead. Can't change your mind now.'

Of course, they explain in as many ways, shapes, and forms as they can to clients beforehand, about how their resolve is a permanent thing. No take backs, no changing of the mind, no second thoughts, after they go out to pursue whomever they need to. Because they never fail at getting the job done.

People automatically assume it's like something out of the movies, and while Zack may think so from time to time because he loves the challenge of it all, the situation is so much more serious than you'd ever see on a big screen.

Cody occasionally took a glance at his bellowing brother, on the phone with their agent, no doubt, over another case. Believe it or not, the market for professional killers was booming. Cody couldn't fathom sometimes just how many people wanted other people dead. And the most horrifying part about it was that they usually wanted a family member of some kind to bite it. Every once in a while, Cody would be able to kill without so much as a thread of guilt, but most of the time, it was Zack pulling the trigger on the real target. Henchmen, bodyguards, security…Cody could handle them pretty easily too. And once he was actually in the heat of battle, you don't think about who or what you're killing, you're only thinking about how to keep yourself alive. It's the aftermath that always gets you.

He envied Zack quite a bit, because he didn't ever seem to have that problem.

"Fine whatever." Zack argued stressfully, as he glared up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. He was tired, Cody could tell. "But you better make sure she pays in advance because this whole thing is testy, and I _know _you have a man closer to that area that you can send."

Cody raised an eyebrow, before glancing back down at his 'Hit Man Weekly', which had arrived at the front desk of the hotel for them that morning. It always came in a yellow envelope, then cased in a FedEx box for cover up. People didn't think such a newsletter would exist, but it did. It certainly wasn't a legal publication. If it were, cops would know exactly where to find them. So would every angry family member and mob boss willing to seek revenge on the son of a bitch that had killed his or her uncle, or right hand man. So it was well hidden when delivered. But it kept them up to date on the most recent news in the professional killer's world, and always had an ad on the last page with the most up to date gun, and upgrade selection available.

He flipped the page to the 'Most Wanted' list and studied it. This page was always good when work was slow, which wasn't often, but every once in a while, it was close enough. These weren't paying gigs, but there were usually 8 or 9 people's faces displayed here for the choosing. These were people who should die, but at the same time didn't matter. They would stay in police records for about a year before HQ would tap in and pull them out to put them in the ad. Almost always, police would have given up on really finding them, because they'd have seemingly disappeared off the globe. It didn't take the pain away from the family's who suffered at their hands though.

Neither he nor Zack had ever participated in it. They stayed busy on a daily basis with assigned gigs from HQ, or referrals. But maybe someday.

"Hey!" Zack snapped, trying to grab his brother's attention. He tossed his cell phone towards him, and it landed right smack in the middle of the magazine, and Cody glared up at him.

"What?" Cody snarled in return, shoving his cell phone off the top of his magazine, before tossing it aside as well and moving into a sitting position.

"That was HQ." Zack replied, as he retrieved his cell phone, now that it had completed its purpose. He tucked it into his back pocket, "We have a gig tomorrow in Sioux City."

Cody processed this before groaning and throwing himself backwards on the bed again, "That's a long way from where we are."

"Yeah well they're faxing us plane tickets in a few." Zack responded. "And the paperwork."

Cody glanced at the clock on the table that was in between his and Zack's bed. It was almost 10pm. Bad thing about being in this business? HQ never slept. Therefore, you were never actually off the clock. It could be the most intensely exhausting job at times. He propped his palms on his forehead, as he listened to Zack shuffling around the room, "So what's the story?"

"Fifteen year old girl called it in." he heard Zack say.

Cody's eyes popped out from under his hands, "_What_?" he sat up again, alarmed by Zack's statement. They'd been doing this for 4 years and he'd never heard that before. "How the heck?"

Zack shrugged slightly, "Somehow found service by way of internet." He paced into the bathroom, "Girl must be one hell of a browser."

Cody was still baffled, "Okay, so, why is a fifteen year old girl calling in?"

"Apparently, her Biology teacher is real scum." Zack said simply, his voice muffled now by the walls between them.

"Okay, well, um, she has parents she can tell," Cody replied, his tone filled with hints of annoyance over the fact that such a young girl would think of something as serious as hiring a hit man. What were kids learning in school these days? "She can call the police, file a report, something other than this."

Zack emerged out of the bathroom, toothbrush sticking out the side of his mouth, "She's already done all that."

"And?"

Zack sighed and took the toothbrush out, "Her parents didn't believe her, sent her to a shrink, had her admitted to some kind of hospital to get help, yada yada…and she can't go to the cops because this guy's brother _is_ one."

Cody remained quiet, waiting for more information on all of this. He was already now, more irritated with this girl's parents and the police system in tact.

"HQ has already checked him out. Get this, there are four other accounts of this guy sexually assaulting his female students, but the police files were dropped all because he has a brother in the force." Zack explained, feeling irritated himself as he talked about it.

"So basically this guy can get away with doing this because he's got a brother on the inside to deflect all the accusations made against him." Cody stated, more so than asked, while Zack nodded towards him. He fell silent for a moment, "He's unstoppable."

Zack huffed, "By everyone else maybe."

Cody folded his arms and huffed furiously. "His brother in the…" he paused and made quotation marks in the air with his fingers, "Force…" he re-folded his arms, "Deserves to have his brains blown out too."

Zack's eyes popped out slightly in disbelief before his lips slowly curved into a smirk, "That's the spirit Cody. Never thought I'd hear you say someone deserved to have their 'brains blown out'."

"There are a lot of people who deserve that." Cody replied, trying to cover up any hints of hesitation in his voice as he said it. He resented that Zack thought he was a chump. Though his brother had witnessed him end lives before, doing so for Cody had launched him into an eternal spiral of shame. Zack knew it. Sometimes he used it to his advantage. Cody hated him for it.

He felt pretty hesitant about this gig, although his anger over what this teacher and his brother cop were getting away with…outweighed the doubt by a long shot. The actions of this Biology teacher certainly could not continue.

Tomorrow, his actions would forever cease.

**X**

"Dude, would you get your fucking mind on straight?" Zack snapped, as they stood on the doorstep to the infamous Biology teacher's house.

Cody shot a glare at Zack, "I'm jet-lagged, and I'm sleep deprived. How about you get off my case?"

Zack rolled his eyes, "Yes, princess."

They'd been hiding out in Sioux City all day now, tracking this douche bag from the moment he'd left the school. Though, he'd looked better in the picture that'd been included in their paperwork briefing. This guy was seriously some kind of sad excuse for a hippy. He was old and disgusting. It was no wonder this girl wanted him dead. He had the kind of face that could haunt dreams in a powerful way.

They still didn't know how this, fifteen year old girl was going to pay them for this, and they had an appointment to meet her in the city park an hour from now. Zack had demanded from HQ that they get the money beforehand, but HQ had set the meeting up with her, thus nullifying an advanced payment.

They were running behind schedule, seeing as the teacher had skipped out on coming home after work and gone to the strip bar first. He had a wife and daughter, which made Cody want to get this creep out of the land of the living even more. Then this teacher, who was supposed to be spending time teaching kids to _not_ drink at all, had decided to drive drunk. For a while, Zack had wondered if they'd even get the chance to kill him them selves. With as poorly as he'd been driving, it's a wonder he hadn't wrecked. The shittiest part was that even if he'd have gotten arrested for driving drunk, or if he'd have hit someone and killed them, charges for a DUI or manslaughter would be dropped. All because of his dumbass brother.

The teacher had arrived home 20 minutes prior to their current position. They sure did hope he had spent his last moments loving on his daughter, or wife.

The area was good too. It was a small country road about 10 minutes from the city. There hadn't been a single car that had driven down this road since he'd gotten there, and the neighboring houses were at least a mile away.

"Alright." Zack started, glancing back at Cody over his shoulder, "You ready?"

Cody checked to make sure his gun was chambered, before giving Zack a single nod, "Ready as ever." No amount of prepping ever actually made either of them 'ready'. They just had their reflexes turned on overdrive. Truth was, you could never _really_ guess what was going to happen once the first bullet was fired. Sometimes things could turn into a messy shootout. Sometimes they were quick and easy. Sometimes family members would be home and get in the way of things. You just really never did know.

Zack turned back towards the door before lifting his leg and kicking it open. He rushed inside, with Cody right behind him and they were surprised to find that this house was much smaller on the inside than it looked on the outside. They were in the living area in two steps, and it didn't seem there was a dining room area at all. They had their guns up and pointed in two opposite directions, covering as many angles as possible, which wasn't hard in a house this small.

"Honey!" a female's voice shouted from their left. Both of them turned their barrels towards the doorway, as a beautiful, brunette emerged, with an apron on. She froze in place at the sight of them. Panic flooded her features, and they could tell she wanted to scream but she was smart enough to know not to, "Who…"

"Ma'am, where's your daughter right now?" Cody asked immediately, not giving her any chance to finish her previous question.

"She's…in the bathtub…" the woman answered, "I was just about to go and get her out…"

"Do me a favor." Cody said, lowering his weapon and grabbing the woman roughly by the arm. He pulled her along, "Go in the bathroom and cover her ears."

"Why?" the woman questioned, ripping her arm away from him, her eyes beginning to burn red, tears threatening to break out as she glanced at Cody with complete confusion, "Who the hell are you?"

"Just do what I say!" Cody snapped angrily, as he shoved her out of the room.

The woman stumbled a few steps, but didn't leave their sight. She didn't have enough answers as to what was going on, and the problem with that was, that even though she was scared, she was curious too. Always a bad sign.

"Where's your husband?" Zack demanded of her, his gun never having stopped its position of pointing towards her.

"What do you want with my husband?" the woman screamed.

Cody had to admire her a little. She was trying to protect her family. If they were burglars rather than hit men, she'd have already taken a bullet for her family. But that wasn't the case, thank goodness. See, even hit men have rules. You don't stray off assignment. You kill the one you're hired to kill, and no one else. Every once in a while, someone else would get shot, especially if they ever pulled a firearm on either himself or Zack. And there were always the assignments where they'd be pursuing some corporate big shot, or sleazy business owner, who had a mob of men to attempt protecting him/her. He was startled out of his thoughts when he noticed Zack blur by him. In only a couple strides, his brother was in the woman's face. It figured. Zack was way too impatient to deal with things like this very easily. And he probably felt rushed, seeing as they were running so behind after having to chase this teacher across town.

Zack made quick work of the woman attempting to block his way, by gripping her shoulder with his hand and shoving her to the side roughly. Her back hit the doorframe, and he stormed on through the passage he'd just created. When the woman, completely panicked at this point, made a move to follow Zack, Cody stopped her firmly. He did _not_ want the little girl in this house to hear her father being executed. So he was going to have to play tough now too. He seized the woman by the shirt collar and planted her back against the wall mercilessly. He put the barrel of his gun to her left temple and glared into her eyes with his own. "I swear to God I will shoot you."

The woman, who'd began to breathe a little rapidly didn't make a sound, or attempt to move for that matter. She simply continued to gaze fearfully into Cody's cold stare.

"Go into that bathroom, and cover your daughter's ears." Cody repeated to her, before taking a step back and jerking the woman away from the wall.

The woman still didn't let a single sound escape her as she stumbled down the hall. Cody made sure to keep an eye on where she was going. When he noticed her open up a door a few feet from him, and he heard a little girl's giggle followed by a 'mommy!', he was assured the woman had in fact gone into the bathroom to do what he'd said.

He was caught a little off guard when Zack roughly brushed by him, "He's not in the bedroom, but there's a shed out back."

Zack was already walking away from him, in pursuit of the back door.

"Wait!" Cody called out, "What about them?" he motioned towards the bathroom door.

Zack rolled his eyes. He could tell by the tone in Cody's voice that he was off focus again. He was more concerned with the mother and daughter than getting the job done. He was going to have a serious heart to heart with his brother later. Now was not the time. "Fine. Stay and play babysitter."

Cody watched his brother storm off, annoyance in every step he took.

When Zack got to the small shed and tried to open it, it was locked. He wasn't usually one to knock, but he was irritated, and needless to say, his frustration with Cody was causing him to be slightly out of sorts. He banged on the door a few times with his fist, causing the entire side of the shed to shake.

"Jesus fucking Christ Lilly!" came a bellowing voice from inside, "You _know_ better than to interrupt me when I'm working!"

Zack raised an eyebrow. Working? On what? It seemed pretty quiet in there. He wasn't using any power tools. I mean, what the hell kind of work was he doing exactly? He brought his fist up again and pounded on the door a couple more times.

"Damn it." The man mumbled this time, "I should beat the fucking shit out of you for this."

So this is the way he treated his wife? What scum. A few seconds later, the latch clicked. Zack positioned his gun towards the ground, both hands wrapped around it as he prepared to take this moron out quickly. The door flung open, and as soon as it did, Zack had turned and stepped inside, grabbing the man by the collar, and pressing the barrel of his gun to his forehead.

The man was sputtering, trying to get some kind of English to come out of his mouth but he couldn't. Zack glanced around for a second, and his eyes landed on a truly pathetic sight. There were pictures. Tons, of pictures, covering the walls of the shed. They were girls from the school, Zack could tell because of the uniforms, and they all had panicked expressions, pained expressions, on their faces as they were being photographed in compromising positions. Stacks of pornographic magazines were piled up in one corner and in various spots on the floor, while in other areas; there were stacks of dvds. But still, the plaguing part was more so those photos. Zack whipped his head back around towards the man, "Are those pictures of your _students_?" he glanced down and noticed the man's pants were pulled up, but unzipped. So _that's_ what he'd been working on.

The teacher gasped, and finally managed out a pleading expression, accompanied by a weak, "Please…"

Zack released the man, but was quick to aim towards the area directly below his belt. He glanced towards the ceiling, "You miserable piece of…" and pulled the trigger.

The man screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground. He was immediately coughing, wheezing, and sputtering. It took him mere seconds to turn completely pale in the face as he writhed in pain. He attempted grasping at the wounded area with his hands, but only made it worse.

"Does your wife know about this?" Zack snapped, as he watched the pitiful man squirm on the ground.

The man babbled a few sounds. He sounded like a newborn baby.

"Didn't think so." Zack replied, before pointing the gun directly at his head and pulling the trigger again.

Cody had heard the two shots, and was praying the daughter hadn't. He waited outside the bathroom door for another minute, and when Zack finally came back inside to retrieve him, he noticed that this man's blood had made a nice mess on Zack's clothing. He even had some on the right side of his face.

"It's done." Zack remarked, his gun gripped loosely in his right hand as it hung to his side, "Let's go."

Cody gave his brother a slight nod, and followed him out, leaving the woman and her daughter in the bathroom, hoping that in the future, they'd find better days.

"So what the fuck was your problem back there?" Zack asked his brother, as they walked across the front lawn. He didn't bother looking back at Cody, but he knew he was following behind him.

"There was no problem." Cody replied, his eyes on Zack's back as they headed towards their rental car, which was parked half a mile down, behind a small section of brush.

"Oh. So. You just decided you didn't feel like killing anyone today then." Zack remarked, hints of sarcasm in his voice. "You would have rather had a tea party with mommy and 'little Betty'."

Cody rolled his eyes, "You know what Zack? I'm tired of you always doing this."

"And I'm tired of you going soft!" Zack sneered angrily, before turning on his brother. "You're a trained killer! Have been for 4 years! I've never seen you as bothered as you have been in the last month and it's really starting to piss me off!"

A silent glare was exchanged between them, before Zack turned away again and resumed walking. Cody waited until the original amount of space was between them before he started following behind his brother again. "Well maybe I'm tired of killing."

He heard a short laugh escape his brother. "Tired of killing? That's your excuse?"

"Would you prefer I lie to you?"

"No! I would prefer you to snap the fuck out of…whatever this is, and stop being such a God-damned pansy."

They spent the rest of the walk back to the car in silence, and the car ride to the park was no different. The only time they spoke to each other was when Zack, who was driving, needed directions, and Cody would tell him which way to turn.

Waiting for the girl on the park bench was spent in silence also. Cody would occasionally glance towards Zack, who had his arms folded across his chest. One foot was propped up on his knee and he was wiggling it impatiently, a frown on his blood splattered face.

Zack would steal glances at Cody also, who was hunched over, his arms resting on his knees, his hands clasped together. Millions of thoughts running through his head. Every other minute he would exhale deeply.

They had both seemingly gone off into their own separate trances, because they didn't notice that the fifteen-year-old girl had shown up, until she cleared her throat.

Both their heads popped upwards to glance at her, and they stood up to greet her. She was a small girl, dark hair, short, with a seemingly shy expression on her face, but hope gleaming in her eyes. She was wearing a pair of jeans that looked one size too big for her, and a pink hoodie. Her hands were in her pockets and her hood was pulled over her head loosely.

"Did you do it?" she asked them eagerly.

Zack glanced towards Cody, before grabbing his shirt and stretching it out slightly for her to observe all the blood splatter he'd collected.

"Wow." She gasped as she studied it.

Cody watched her intently. To her, the blood proof was almost fascinating.

"You'll never believe how thankful I am for this." She told, smiling as she looked back and forth between the two of them.

Zack released his shirt and shot her a small smile, "Glad we could help."

The girl had almost gotten mesmerized by the blood again, but managed to snap herself out of it, "Uh, sorry you must think I'm crazy." She ran a hand through her hair, before extending it out towards them, "I'm Emily."

"Pleasure." Zack replied, as he grasped her small hand and gave it a single shake.

Cody managed to give Emily a smile and a single nod as he shook her hand next.

"Now I can finally go to school without feeling dread every morning." She explained, before reaching into her back pocket and pulling out an envelope that was folded in half. "Here." She held it out, "It's all there."

Zack took the envelope from her and glanced inside. It looked legit.

"Had to empty the savings account my parents set up for me to cover it." She said, looking almost nervous about the fact, "But…" she glanced towards Cody, and made eye contact briefly before glancing down, "This was well worth it."

Cody felt so sorry for this poor girl. To suffer what she had suffered at the hands of this man. They'd read the report, but it had been pretty vague as far as what his offense to this girl had been. Sexual assault. But there was no telling what he'd really done to her. For her to be here, now, so relieved, and almost overjoyed by the sight of this man's blood all over Zack? He must have done really grim things to her.

"Well." Zack said, as he tucked the newly received envelope into his back pocket, "Nightmare's over." He gave her another smile before resting his hand on her shoulder for a split second, "Good luck telling your parents where your money went."

He and Cody both gave Emily a slight wave, before turning to head back towards the car.

"Wait." Emily said, halting both brothers at the same time as they spun around to her again.

Her eyes were red. Tears had begun to roll down her eyes. She walked towards them and threw one arm around Cody's neck and the other around Zack's, forming some sort of (awkward for them), three-way embrace as she cried into their shoulders. "Thank you both so much." She sobbed.

Cody didn't really know what to do at this point. Zack was already patting her on the back of the head, so he supposed he could do the whole 'patting-on-the-back'. As he gently consoled her, he realized he was finally feeling halfway decent about their gig. Who gave a damn about the mother and daughter in this moment?

They'd just become this girl's hero.

And that was the feeling that he'd been missing lately.

Moments like this were what made this job worth it.

**X  
**

"I hate paperwork." Zack murmured, as the two boys sat in an empty, except for them, Ihop restaurant. It was after 2 a.m. and they'd been filling out all the paperwork for that week's gigs for what seemed like hours.

Cody was busy counting the money, because Zack had never been good at handling money without wanting to spend it, nor had he ever been that great at counting.

Zack, in the meantime, was filling out and signing off on the case forms that would confirm their assignments had been completed, and finalize the deals so that they could get their share of the profits.

This was a weekly routine for the two of them, and Zack never failed to offer up plenty of moaning and groaning. He would get it done, but he wouldn't like it.

Cody didn't mind this part of the job. It actually put his brain to work to count so much money and add and subtract figures and percentages. They got to keep 78% of their profits, while the other 22% went to HQ. However, it still made them the highest paid in the business. Most everyone else only kept 63% of his or her profits. Cody didn't know if it was because they'd been working this job now for 4 years, if it was because there were two of them, or if it was because they were simply the best in the biz. HQ didn't answer too many questions.

The waitress, Tina, came to their table, but the boys didn't try covering up what they were doing. They were too engrossed in things to even realize that she was standing there.

"Can I get you guys some more coffee?" she asked them, and both their heads popped up, "Anything more to eat?"

Cody flashed her a smile, "No thanks, not for me." He glanced away from her so he could finish the counting.

"Me neither." Zack agreed, as he gave her a glance over.

The waitress picked up on his wandering eyes and walked away, slightly creeped out by the two boys who'd been sitting there quietly for over 2 hours. They had their papers scattered everywhere, and a large collection of cash just sitting out for the world to see. Well, it wasn't like there was anyone else in the restaurant right now, but still. Something seemed off about the entire thing.

Zack waited until the waitress was completely out of sight, before sighing and facing his paperwork again. She was cute, and it'd been a while since he'd been able to enjoy any female companionship. When you do a job like he did, you didn't have time for things like that. You were married to your job. 24/7. Occasionally he could talk a girl into coming back to his room with him, and he'd kick Cody out for the night, forcing him to get a room of his own or stay out for a while until he was finished, but it was a rare occurrence. Cody actually bringing a girl home was even more rare. But it did happen from time to time.

"Zack, we tripled our profits since last month." Cody told, as he had finally finished the actual money counting part. He separated it all by bill type before putting each separate stack into it's own white envelope.

"Yeah well," Zack replied, as his eyes scanned over a form. He blinked and scribbled his signature in at the bottom of it, before glancing up at Cody, "That's cause we're the best."

Cody had all the individual white envelopes sealed, and was now putting each of them into a larger, yellow envelope. He couldn't believe just how much of an increase they'd managed to acquire. Were they really spilling that much more blood this month than the last?

"You act like that surprises you." Zack stated, as he scribbled his signature on the next form. Cody remained silent, as he wrote HQ's address on a Fed Ex form. "Well…" Zack sighed, and leaned back slightly, "It actually kind of surprises me too, considering you're losing interest."

Cody halted his actions, and closed his eyes stressfully. He really didn't _want _to talk to Zack again about this subject right now, but maybe it'd be best if he did. That way they could finally get it behind them and he wouldn't have to continue hearing about it. Truth was, he _had _been losing interest up until the fifteen year old girl, Emily, unknowingly had reminded him of why he'd signed up for this line of work in the first place. "Look Zack." He said, glancing up towards him.

Zack glanced up as well, ready to hear whatever kind of ridiculous excuse his brother was going to give him this time.

"I'm sorry for slacking off lately." Cody said, as Zack's eyes responded in a bit of surprise at the apology, "I'm just tired." He stated, before adding a, "But not of killing." To the end of it, "When I said that earlier, I didn't really mean it. It's just that we haven't had a break in a long time, and I lost focus a bit."

Zack wasn't sure if he believed Cody yet, but he still remained silent so that his twin could finish his piece.

"Or maybe I lost focus a lot, I just…" Cody paused for a second, "It's harder for me to handle the aftermath anymore. That's why you're better at this than me."

"Dude." Zack had to pipe in at this point, as he leaned across the table. "Neither of us is better than the other. You're damn good at this job, you're just getting too wound up in the clients' feelings. And that's the number one no-no."

Cody gave Zack a pointed look. Was he still really that good at the job? Cause he'd felt like he'd been slipping for several weeks now. He didn't feel as invested. But he had every intention of fixing that problem now. "I know, but I'm going to change that." He replied, as he glanced down to seal the yellow envelope with the money in it. "Seeing the relief in Emily's eyes tonight was a reminder that we're not bad guys for doing what we do."

Zack continued to just gaze at his brother, before leaned back again in the booth, "Dude, maybe you should just take the training course again."

"I don't need to take the training course." Cody mumbled, as he secured the Fed Ex form to the envelope. "I'll get better. You watch."

"Alright." Zack replied hesitantly, before resuming his sign offs on all the paperwork he'd filled out. "When you're done with that don't forget to sign these." He mumbled, tapping on papers he was setting to the side with his pen without looking back up.

Cody sighed, scooting the yellow envelope to the side, and grabbing the papers Zack had already dealt with. He started signing the bottoms of them. "How many was it this week?"

"Eleven." Zack replied.

"Eleven is a nice number." Cody remarked, and watched his brother smirk. He couldn't help it. It brought a smile to his own face as well.

Thank God they'd worked things out. Now he just had to hold up to his word.

Zack on the other hand, couldn't wait to have his brother back on the same page as him. When Cody was in the zone, he was a killing machine.

**X**

The next morning, as they were leaving the Fed Ex station, Cody was feeling like a different man again. They needed to stop at the ammunition store so they could restock for next week, but he was shocked when Zack ended up announcing that they had the next 2 days off.

"What do you mean two days?" Cody asked, completely awe struck by this. Never in their 4 years had they gotten two days off in a row, unless on vacation, which also only happened once a year.

"HQ has a big job lined up for us in Sin City on Friday." Zack replied, as they glanced both ways at the street curb.

"Sin City? We haven't been there yet." Cody responded, slight hints of interest in his voice, as both of them left the curb and crossed the street.

"I know." Zack answered, "They said it was a big deal. They'll be faxing us the paperwork tonight."

"So until then what?" Cody asked, as they walked around the street corner.

"Until then we stay here." Zack shrugged.

"Isn't that just a little risky?" Cody pondered, wondering why HQ would have them stay in the same location for 3 days in a row. It was never a smart move for a hit man to remain in a location where a job has been done.

It was about damage control, and keeping their identity and job safe. If they were to run into that mother and daughter at any point, she could identify them as the ones who'd killed her husband. Of course, that in turn, would only get her killed also. Ratting out a hit man was _never _wise. But then they'd have the cops chasing after them and who knows what else. This is why they moved from day to day. They couldn't risk being pointed out to someone. It jeopardized _everything_. Of course, the odds of them running into that woman and daughter were highly unlikely. But still. You could never be too careful in this line of work.

"Trust me, I know it's not the wisest thing to do, but we can move to a different hotel, on the other side of the city." Zack suggested, holding his arms out as he explained. He'd always been a motion talker. "HQ isn't going to put us up anywhere else until they're ready to move us, and I know we're loaded but I'd rather not spend my hard earned money on a plane ticket or hotel room."

Cody nodded vaguely in response as they headed back towards the direction of their current hotel.

"Plus, since we're heading to Vegas, I'm saving all my earnings for the casinos." Zack told, a smirk on his face, "And the babes."

"Ugh." Cody retorted, a look of disgust in his eyes as Zack turned his head to look at him. "You shouldn't pay for sex, Zack. It's not safe."

Zack rolled his eyes, "Cody," he said as he flung an arm over his brother's shoulder, "There's a reason why man invented the condom."

"Whatever." Cody replied, shaking Zack's arm off, "But when you test positive for an STD, I'm rubbing it in your face."

Zack faced forward again, his mind scanning over the horrific thought of winding up with a positive test result, "Dude. If I test positive for an STD you'd better shoot me."

Cody tilted his head to the side slightly with a half smile, "Though that offer is tempting, I'd rather you suffer for your foolish decisions."

Zack's jaw dropped a little and he glared at his brother. He _would_ just want him to suffer.

**X**

Later that evening, Zack had gone on to the ammunition store by his lonesome. For some reason, Cody didn't want to go along, but he blamed it on the fact that he wanted to get some sleep. Seeing as he'd complained to Zack yesterday about being 'sleep deprived', and then they'd went to bed after 5 a.m. and gotten up by 10 a.m., Zack didn't really offer up much of an argument about it.

It was after 7 p.m., and Cody, though he was lying down, was restless. In all honesty, he couldn't get that girl Emily off his mind, and what she'd said to him. It had become a desperate, booming cry in his mind, and he really wondered how long that teacher had been violating her. Having parents that didn't believe her story. Being forced to go into a mental institution where she was made to take drugs, and diagnosed with something when she'd only been trying to cry for help. He was doing it again already. Connecting too much with the client.

But he just couldn't help it.

And then there was the legal system. So crooked and messed up all because the teacher had a brother on the inside. The entire situation made him feel sick to his stomach, and he sure hoped that Emily wouldn't reap any of the aftermath over the teacher being dead now. Of course, he could always go check on her.

No, no. What the hell was he thinking? He couldn't re-associate himself with her. That would only draw attention to him self and it would be a great risk to do so, especially since for the next week or whatever, there would be so much buzz around this teacher's death.

His name had been Henry Duplay, by the way. Cody had made sure to figure it out when he signed off on the paperwork for the gig last night. Sometimes it just seemed too plain to refer to their targets as 'the lawyer', or 'the teacher'. And since this one in particular had made such an impact on him, he wanted to be able to remember that he and his brother had killed Mr. Duplay, and ended his reign of terror over his female students. Seriously, how did all that get past the school board? He wanted to know things. He wanted to know how long he'd been doing this to his students. If it started as soon as he was hired, or if it started sometime afterwards. He wanted to know what Emily's parents had said to her when she tried to tell them what her teacher was doing to her. He wanted to know _what_ the teacher had done to her.

He wanted to know just how much of a hero, he and Zack had become to her.

Now he was starting to feel sick with himself. What kind of creep wanted to know details about a sexual predator and the damage he'd done to his victims? He'd never really been so interested before, and he and Zack had ended many, _many_ lives of people just like Mr. Duplay.

Then again, they'd never really been looked at like saviors before either. Not like this. When you're in a business like this, you're not really thought of as a hero. You're more or less thought of silent death. Someone who comes and claims lives, and then disappears without so much a trace.

Cody squeezed his eyes shut. He had to get his mind to slow down, or else he'd never be able to sleep. Or forget about Emily.

He rolled over onto his stomach and stared blankly at the wall, using his arms to keep his head propped up. He let his eyes fall shut again. "Emily…" he mumbled.

He had to see her again.

* * *

**AN : So what do you guys think? It is different, right? I don't know, writing Zack and Cody as hit men has been extremely fun so far! I think I might just keep this plot. :) There will be some cameo appearances from some of our other favorite SLOD characters. London will be making her appearance soon, and I already have the perfect idea in mind for how she's going to fit in. I think I'm pretty sure how Bailey is going to play a part in all of this as well. So keep an eye out for my next update! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Mistakes

**AN : Yeah. Inspiration is still just running like the river wild for this plot. So here's another pretty lengthy chapter. It's alot of filler, but I wanted to write it because I needed to put some closure in to the whole Cody-Emily situation. Lot's of Cody and Zack banter here as well. And I'm not sure if I've broken the M-rated mark with this one, but I'm going to go ahead and label this story as so anyway, because if I didn't cross the line here, I know that I got closer. I don't want to be reported for under-rating this fic. Also! Shoutout to my reviewers for last chapter : Wyntirsno, CraziiCookii, Lady Emily, and Hailfax-McGee. To the four of you, I extend much appreciation and thanks. You made me feel alot better about posting a story like this, and I was so glad to get the encouragment from you guys. To everyone who took the time to read it - thank you all as well. :) **

* * *

_Disclaimer : I do not own The Suite Life On Deck or any of the characters associated. _

* * *

Attached At The Hit

Part Two – Mistakes

**X**

Cody was irritated with himself when he woke up in the morning. His dreams had been filled with blood splatters, and flying bullets going in slow motion. There were sounds of screaming all around him, but the screams had no one in particular they belonged to. They were just…screams. He just hadn't rested well. And he couldn't afford to not rest. The clock read a little after 8am, and Zack was already awake, and in the shower. One thing about the both of them, they showered _constantly _it seemed. When you've been splattered with blood as often as they had, though, it wasn't a hard habit to grow accustomed to.

Cody sat up in bed, and noticed that Zack had stacked his newly bought boxes of ammo beside the wall. Rounds for both his .44 Magnum, _and _for his .500 Magnum. It seemed like a lot of ammo, but it really wasn't, considering that sometimes, they could go through all of that in a single gig, depending on the circumstances.

He brought his hands to his eyes. They were in the new hotel, having switched yesterday. They just had to get through today and tomorrow, and then they'd be able to leave Sioux City.

"Good morning sunshine." Zack greeted, his head peeked out the crack in the bathroom door.

Cody glanced up at him, his eyes still feeling droopy from sleep, and waved towards him. Zack retracted his head and closed the bathroom door shut again to put some clothes on, Cody assumed. It was weird. Zack knew that Cody was awake when he hadn't even made a sound. That was that freaky twin connection shit. They had it all the time, but they weren't sure they liked it or not.

Cody sighed, and managed to get himself out of bed. He spent a few seconds stretching, before walking over towards their printer/fax machine that they'd managed to rig to their laptop. There was a stack of papers sitting in the tray, and he grabbed them to start going over what it was HQ had sent them today already.

The top page was a note of their bank account, saying that their profits from last week had been received by HQ, transferred, and posted.

The second was safe vacation get away spots, for 'the hit man who needs time off', which Cody tossed into the waste basket, not even giving it a second glance.

The third was page one of the info packet on the gig in Las Vegas. Cody set the bank account statement to the side, and walked back over to his bed, plopping down on it.

Zack emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed, and wide awake. It didn't make sense to Cody. Did the guy never have nightmares? Or problems with only sleeping for 5 hours?

"Let's go get breakfast." Zack told, walking over to Cody's bedside and glancing at what he was reading. He rolled his eyes and threw his head back slightly, "Dude, we have two days to read that file, let's at least use _one_ of our days off to do _nothing_."

Cody gave Zack a questioning stare. "_You_ actually want to do _nothing_?" he paused for a second, and watched Zack saunter over to his bed. He knew what was coming, "You complain all the time about not having enough to do, even when we take on more than one job a day, and now you're sitting here saying you want to do _nothing_?"

"Well..." Zack began to answer, as he sat down on the side of his bed, "I thought about it last night, and, maybe this two day break will be a good thing because we have been working so hard lately."

Cody raised an eyebrow, "You just want to get drunk."

Zack held up a finger, "Correction. I want to get drunk, _while_ at a strip club." when Cody shot him a frown, he added, "And yes, there is a difference."

"Well you can go do whatever. I want to be prepared for this one, seeing as you don't like to read these over in very good detail anymore." Cody replied, as he faced the top page again and his eyes began to scan it.

"Reading is for twits. Come on, let's go get our grub on!" Zack whined, as he bounced on the side of the bed a little. There was that infamous impatience again.

Cody glanced back up, annoyed, before slamming the papers down on the bed to his side. "If I go have breakfast with you, will you leave me the hell alone?"

"Of course." Zack smirked. "I don't want you at the club with me anyway. I wouldn't be able to handle you nagging me about what not to drink. Or the fact that I shouldn't gape at females like they're the main course at dinner."

This brought a small smirk to Cody's face. All that time and all those words he always felt like he wasted on his party animal of a brother? Felt completely un-wasted now. Of course, this wasn't the first time Zack had pinpointed what he knew Cody would say to him in certain situations. It was just nice to think that even though Zack _appeared_ like he wasn't listening sometimes, he actually was.

"Alright." Cody said, giving in finally, "Let's go eat." He stood from the bed and looked for some clothes he could throw on to make himself semi-presentable. He'd shower when he got back, even though he'd be miserable about _not _showering the entire time he was out. Oh well, it was just breakfast. But he did have to brush his teeth first. That was something he did four times a day without fail.

**X**

"So what was it like?" Cody asked from across the table, as he watched his brother shove a huge bite of pancakes into his mouth savagely. It was like he'd never eaten before.

Zack raised an eyebrow and just gazed at Cody while he chewed his food. When Cody remained silent, and continued to just gaze at him in return, he held one of his arms up, "What was what like?"

"Ew, Zack." Cody waved his arms up and turned his head to the side, a frown on his face. "You shouldn't talk with food in your mouth."

Zack's jaw dropped open, exposing the food again, "You just asked me …" he trailed off, before turning his gaze back towards his food, "Unbelievable."

"You could have swallowed first." Cody murmured, before glancing down at his own plate.

Zack swallowed his bite, making sure Cody knew full well that he was doing so, before muttering a sarcastic, "Well excuse me, Mr. Demanding." He held up his arms again as he gazed over at him, "Am I good to go now?"

Cody only glared back at him as he took a small bite of his waffle.

"What was what like?" Zack asked again, arms folded across each other at the edge of the table.

"That guy last night. Mr. Duplay." Cody replied after he'd swallowed his bite of waffle, _and _taken a drink of his orange juice.

"Who?" Zack asked pointedly, not knowing what the hell his brother was talking about still. He was getting irritated. It's like Cody was talking in code-phrases. Who the fuck was Mr. Duplay?

"Emily's teacher!" Cody responded in a slight snap, annoyed with Zack as well. Just how long would it take before Zack understood anything? I mean, he _was_ speaking English here.

"How the fuck do you know his name?" Zack pondered, still frowning towards Cody.

"Um. It was in his file." Cody replied back, now with hints of sarcasm in his voice. "You would have known that, had you actually read any of it."

"Whatever." Zack mumbled, ultimately deciding to ignore Cody's moodiness for the time being as he exhaled loudly, "You're wanting to know what happened out in the shed?"

"Damn it Zack." Cody snapped towards him again, pounding his fist lightly enough on the table so that he didn't draw attention towards them, but hard enough that it made the silverware clink against the surface.

Zack's eyes popped out slightly, "_Sor-ry_." He muttered with sarcasm, before pointing at him self, "In my defense you were being pretty vague."

"Whatever, just." Cody sighed, propping his head up on one hand in a stressful manner, "I'm sorry too, but can you just answer the question please."

Zack shrugged in response, "You know. The usual. I shot him. He died."

Cody rolled his eyes. "Now you're being vague." He took another drink of his orange juice all the while sending Zack a pretty rough glare.

"You want details? Fine." Zack replied, completely annoyed at this point with the entire conversation. "I went out there, he was jacking off to a bunch of pictures of his students, I shot him in the groin, he whined like a bitch, then I shot him in the head." He finished all in one sentence, "There, is that what you wanted? Anything else?"

Cody continued to glare at Zack, not appreciative of the attitude that had come with the explanation at all. Zack was wearing a glare of his own as he turned back to his food. He took a huge bite of his hash browns.

Cody waited for a few moments, because he could clearly tell he'd gotten Zack annoyed, before asking another question, "What makes you think those were pictures of his students?"

"Because of the uniforms they were wearing." Zack muttered, keeping his eyes on his plate. "They were uniforms from the school we followed…" he paused, trying to remember the name Cody had called the teacher by, but after only a mere couple seconds, he was too impatient to continue trying to think about it, "Mr. What-the-fuck-ever-his-name-is, from."

"Mr. Duplay." Cody offered.

"Mmhmm." Zack replied, continuing to gobble down his breakfast.

Cody wondered if his brother was going to allow himself to come up for air at any point. He always ate like this, and Cody didn't for the life of him, understand why. He figured it was partly because they were always on the go, always needing to get somewhere, or go do something. Always in a hurry. But still. They were going to be here for two days, it wasn't like they had anything better to do at the moment.

"I see." Cody finally replied, before resuming consumption of his food as well.

"Hey miss!"

Cody's eyes shot back up to Zack again, who was chewing a mouth full of food while holding his empty chocolate milk glass in the air.

"Can I get some more of this please?" Zack called towards the waitress, who was currently standing behind the front counter.

When the waitress started walking their way, Zack sat the glass back down, before shoving another bite of food into his mouth.

Cody glared at him, slightly disgusted. So much for swallowing your food before speaking. But Cody knew that Zack was fully aware of what he was doing. And this was the payment he was receiving for pissing Zack off a few minutes ago. He didn't want to start another argument between them though, so he just let Zack do his thing for the remainder of breakfast.

**X**

"I need the rental car for a few hours." Cody told Zack, as he emerged from the bathroom, having finally showered.

"What for?" Zack asked, an immediate hint of whine in his voice, "I was going to take it to the bar."

"Why can't you take the bus?" Cody asked in reply, as he finished rubbing his towel on the back of his head.

"Why can't _you _take the bus?" Zack mimicked the question, shooting his brother a curious gaze.

"Because…" Cody replied, not wanting to give away too much information to Zack about his plans for the day, "I think I left something back at the other hotel. It's on the other side of the city. The bus wouldn't run there. But the bus _will _take you pretty close to the bar."

Zack continued to gaze at his brother, one of his eyebrows raised slightly, before finally caving. He let off a sigh, as he turned his head away. "Fine." He leaned back a little and pulled the rental car keys from his pocket, then turned and tossed them to Cody. "But just so you know, it's going to be a hell of a lot harder to convince a girl to ride the bus back to the hotel than it would be if I actually had a car to drive her back here in."

Cody threw his hand out, "Then call a cab. You're going to be drinking anyway, it's not like you should be behind the wheel at all."

"Whatever." Zack mumbled back, as he glanced back at his laptop. He was researching the best club choices for the area, but he hadn't come to a decision yet. It was a toss up between Tiger Lounge, and Traffik. According to the reviews on the page he was looking at, these two were the best places to go.

"What time are you leaving?" Cody called from inside the bathroom, where he'd retreated to again to brush his teeth for the second time.

"I don't know." Zack replied, "Probably around five. Don't want to start drinking too early, but I definitely want to indulge myself."

Cody huffed from the sink. "Just don't forget to call me when you're done with your 'hookup' so that I know when it's safe to come back."

Zack's jaw dropped slightly, "When have I ever forgotten to call you?"

"Almost always." Cody responded, as he finished up with his dental care and walked back out of the bathroom, hitting the light off as he did so. He was feeling slightly annoyed as thoughts of Zack's previous 'night's of fun' came into his memory. He was always too wasted and too exhausted to remember calling for the most part.

"I'll call, alright?" Zack argued, "Don't get your panties in too much of a twist."

"Fine." Cody replied, as he tossed the keys to the car into the air and caught them again, "And tomorrow we're going over that file. Together." He remarked as he headed towards the door. He stopped and pointed a finger at Zack, his other hand gripping the doorknob, "I don't care how hung over you are."

Zack glared at Cody without a word, and watched as his brother opened up the hotel room door and exited. He flung himself back onto the bed and sighed. He wondered what Cody could have possibly left behind at the other hotel. They'd already done an equipment and gear check. It wasn't any weapons or anything to do with their technology hookups. Cody usually wasn't one to leave things behind, but he didn't spend too much time dwelling on it. He had a night of adventure to look forward to. He glanced at the clock on the table in between his and Cody's bed. It was only 2pm. What was he going to do for the next 3 hours? He'd never really had a problem figuring out how to entertain himself. For once, he kind of just wanted to lie there in the quiet. Without his brother's nagging voice in his ear. I mean, he loved his brother with all his heart, and all that other mushy mumbo jumbo crap, but _everyone _needed a break from Cody at some point in their lives. Anyone who'd ever had the chance to know him, anyways.

**X**

Cody perked up as the sound of the school bell ringing was signaling to the students, that it was the end of the day, and that they could in fact, be free for now. Students slowly but surely began to walk out of the front doors of the school, and he was strictly watching for a certain girl in particular, to walk out those doors.

He didn't know why he'd given in and decided to actually come here, even after mentally telling himself it was a bad idea to be back on this side of the city. There had been several cops out and about in the neighborhood, no doubt looking for the person who'd killed the school teacher. But he was an expert at avoiding cops, and in all reality, they didn't worry him that much. He just didn't want to draw any unwanted attention to himself.

He noticed that there weren't any students that looked or seemed very upset. In fact, most were carrying on like they didn't even know that one of their teachers had died. Maybe they had done more than Emily the favor of ridding the school of Mr. Duplay.

Speaking of Emily, he was starting to get worried about what was taking her so long to get out here. And once again, he found himself feeling like a creep. What exactly _was_ he doing here?

That question kept popping into his head, and he couldn't quite put a finger on it, but he just couldn't fight off the need to see this girl again.

Maybe this was just stupid. Maybe he needed to leave now while he still could. Maybe he was once again, slipping right back into being too caught up over clients. Maybe Zack had been right. Maybe he should take the training course again.

It'd remind him about how dangerous it was to have feelings like this. And about how trying to connect with clients on a personal level was an easy way to get your self into a heap of trouble.

It was too late now though, because his eyes spotted her. He didn't know if he should call out to her while she was on school property. But if he followed her home, then he would look like a stalker. In many ways he was a stalker. Just not in the, following fifteen-year-old high school girls' home kind of way.

Yeah…now what? He'd gotten himself into a predicament already over this girl.

"Think Cody think." He mumbled to him self, "You're actually good at thinking, so use your brain."

The words, 'mayday! Mayday!' screamed in his head as he glanced towards her again. She was talking to another girl. Her back was turned to him. He couldn't hear what they were talking about because he was a good distance from them, but he did notice that when she turned back around, she had a nice smile on her face. And it didn't leave. Not even as she drew closer to him.

Cody slumped down a little bit in his seat, which actually made him uncomfortable seeing as how, he hated slouching. But he was regretting being here right now, that was for sure.

Emily walked up the sidewalk, still smiling, when her eyes finally glanced his direction. She paused her step for a split second, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her. When she came to the realization of who he was, her smile grew a little wider, and Cody found himself no longer giving a flying flip about the fact that he'd shown up to see her again.

That smile was so worth seeing again.

"Hello." Emily greeted as she approached his window.

"Hello." Cody responded, and his eyes were glued to her for the moment.

She had both her arms wrapped around her school bag strap as she leaned forward and back, balancing on the heels of her converse. "I didn't think I'd see you again."

Cody laughed shortly, "Yeah…" he trailed off as he glanced down, bangs in his face. "Didn't think I'd be back to see you."

He picked his head back up. He had to get a grip on himself right now or he was going to come off as an out of control dip shit. He glanced at her for a moment before his eyes scanned the premises of the school again, "How were things today?"

"Today?" Emily asked, before she leaned over a little more, getting a better look at him, "Oh. Huh. Nobody misses him, trust me."

Silence fell between them, and Cody was pretty sure a good 30 seconds passed, before she spoke up again, "So you're alone today?"

"Oh! Yeah, my uh…well he's my brother. He's off doing something. I don't know." Cody replied, gazing up at her again.

"I was wondering…" Emily responded, "You two look a lot alike. He was the one that had the bloo-"

Cody cut her off, not wanting her to say too much while they were still so out in the open, "Can I give you a ride home or…something?" he asked, trying to change the subject completely until they were in a more private setting. He just needed her to be out of earshot from everyone else before she spoke too much more about last night.

"Uh…" Emily paused, hesitant for a moment. She wasn't sure exactly how friendly she should be with this guy. He was a trained killer. But he'd done her such a favor last night. Plus he was kind of cute. He seemed nice enough, "Sure why not."

She shrugged, before heading around to the passengers side of the car, and Cody slumped down again, mentally kicking himself straight in the ass for already allowing this to go way too far. 'Please God don't let anyone see her get into this car with me…' he thought, as his eyes glanced around the school grounds again. There were still students milling around, but none seemed to be looking their direction. He hoped it stayed that way until he drove off. Showing his face like this was another big no-no for a hit man. Zack would absolutely _kill_ him, if he knew he was here right now.

Emily slinked into the passenger's seat and shut the door behind her, giving him a smile after she situated herself. "Okay. Ready."

Cody gave her a slight nod, and swallowed nervously, "Okay." He put the car into drive and got out of there as fast as he could. Without speeding, of course.

**X**

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The chorus of the crowd only revved Zack up more as he glared towards his opponent. A great big biker guy with tons of tattoos, and a bandana around his head. So, really, just a great big jackass in Zack's eyes. He stumbled slightly, trying to keep his footing. He was already three sheets to the wind, but that was _not_ going to make him back away from a fight. This guy was twice his size, and he was about to make a mockery out of him in front of the entire bar.

The biker was drunk too, swaying back and forth slightly as he clenched his fists. Zack of course, thought this whole thing had been started for a stupid reason. He'd supposedly taken this buffoon's seat at the bar while he'd gone to the restroom.

Well, he was ruining the evening, and Zack wasn't going to put up with it. And he was really growing tired of the man just standing there glaring at him. "Are you going to fight me or what?" Zack snapped, irritated by the fact that this guy had claimed to want to fight, but so far had just been standing there mean-mugging.

The biker smirked in a drunken stupor, "Little man…I'm going to break you in half…" he threatened, or at least, attempted to threaten.

This only made Zack laugh. Not only at the man's assurance that he could win this fight, but also because the crowd was just _so _into this. "Really?" Zack's eyes popped out a little as he looked at the guy in disbelief, "Cause I have to tell you, you're doing a bang up job so far…." He paused, as the biker scowled at him. He leaned a little closer to the guy, and attempted to read the patch on his black vest. "Wiley…" he mumbled drunkenly, "That's your name?"

"It's Willie!" the biker boomed towards him.

Zack closed his eyes for a moment, trying to stop the room from spinning, and he pointed towards the guy, "I think I like Wiley better."

The biker muttered some kind of half-assed growl before charging in Zack's direction.

Zack opened his eyes up just in time to step backwards, and Willie flew right past him, into an empty table. He fell on top of it, completely crushing the cheap wood under his weight as he fell into spread eagle position on his stomach.

Zack erupted into laughter. "Hey! Nice one Wiley!" he pointed towards the man again. Seriously if you could just see it through his eyes, it was hysterical. Even if he wasn't intoxicated he was pretty sure he'd still be laughing pretty hard. Maybe even harder.

The crowd continued to chant and yell in excitement, but the bartender showed up to ruin everyone's fun, which resulted in both Zack, and Willie to be banned from the premises.

Well. At least he could still try out Traffik. He sighed as he walked to the curb and raised his hand up to call for a taxi.

**X**

"Have you and your brother been doing this for long?"

Cody tried not to shift so uncomfortably in the driver's seat as he glanced towards Emily, wondering if he should answer the question or not. No-no #2 for a hit man. Never give out any information to anyone about who you are, what you do, or why you do it. Cody was pretty sure this question fell under those categories somewhere, so he decided to respond with a simple, "Long enough," and gave her a slight smile. They were parked underneath a tree in the parking lot of the park, where he and Zack had first met her last night.

When Cody had gone to drop Emily off at home, she'd begged him to wait until later, when she knew her parents would be out eating. She didn't want to go home and deal with being questioned about the teacher, and scolded for talking so harshly about him. She could just hear her parents now. _'Now he's gone Emily! You'll never get the chance to apologize to him for making up all those horrible things and trying to get him in trouble! All those accusations and lies, and you can't take it back now! Are you ashamed of yourself? You should be.' _

She wanted to enjoy this day, because it was the start of a new life for her at that school. She felt born anew. Like she'd been finally set free of a horrible curse that'd been placed upon her since day one of attending that school. She didn't want to give her parents the chance to take that away from her. And when she'd explained it like that to Cody, he couldn't find it in himself to contribute to her being robbed of her happiness.

Cody of course, hadn't really wanted to drive all this way, just to simply drop her off at home. He really just wanted to talk to her. He still didn't know why he was so intrigued by the girl. She was young, and had only needed to be rescued. Well, he and his brother had done just that, but Cody was still clinging to something. There was just _something_.

"Have you ever been to Sioux City before?"

Cody slowly shook his head, his lips folded into each other as he kept them shut tightly. He needed to avert the attention off of himself. He really couldn't answer her questions. Although, it'd be nice for someone to know _something _about him for once. Aside from his brother.

"Uh, so." He began, and her expression changed to an attentive one as she sat up a little straighter in her seat. "If you don't mind me asking…" he glanced down for a second. "Just how long…had you been having to deal with that guy?"

"Well…" she started, her eyes darting around as if she was watching a movie play in her head as she tried to recall the information. "My parents and I moved here when I was 12. My first year of high school was when I was 14. So…" she paused again, "A little over a year."

Cody raised an eyebrow in shock, "It started when you were _fourteen_?"

"Yeah…" Emily mumbled in response, her voice sounding a little strained. "I had him for Biology my first year. This year I didn't have him at all, but…he found ways to see me anyway." She explained, and Cody frowned, "In the bathroom. During lunch. He ran detention after school on Mondays and Wednesdays. He'd always manage to make sure I was in there. He'd lie to the principal about me, saying I'd done something to have to be there." She continued, her gaze facing forward out of the windshield. "And of course, my parent's believed that I really needed to be in detention. They're such kiss-asses when it comes to the board of education. They'd eat out of the teacher's hands if they could."

Cody gazed at her silently for a moment, before letting out an un-approving grunt. He glanced forward out the windshield, watching in the distance, an older look college kid walking his dog.

"Then I remember one day…" Emily spoke again, this time there was a bit of weakness in her tone. "I was walking home."

Cody already didn't like where this was going. His left hand gripped the steering wheel slightly as he prepared to feel pretty angry.

"And he pulled up beside me." Emily said, a distant look in her eyes, "He said if I didn't get in the car with him, he'd see to it that my parents were informed that I'd defied a teacher's instruction."

Cody, at this point, couldn't believe what a manipulative son of a bitch this guy had been. It was crazy the things people would say sometimes to get their way. Why did God even _allow_ people like that to roam the earth?

"He would have me expelled." Emily kept going, even though it was beginning to get harder for her. Her eyes were starting to look a little red. "And there was just nothing I could do at that point. It was either, get expelled, and be shipped off to military school somewhere because my parents had had enough of my being in trouble all the time with 'detentions', or get in the car." She paused for a second as her body racked slightly with a sob. "So I did."

Cody watched her intently. She was continuing to get more uncomfortable with each passing moment, and he sure hoped she didn't think that she absolutely _had_ to keep going at this point. "You know…Emily…" he started, but didn't get far because she cut him off.

"I got in the car because I thought that at that point, things couldn't get any worse." She had started to cry, and Cody's eyes had popped out a little bit. "I was thinking, what could he possibly do to me that he hadn't already done before, you know?"

"Uh…" was all Cody could respond with. How do you offer comfort when you know you can't take the memory or the pain away? What do you say in situations like this? What do you do? What _can _you do?

"Nobody ever did believe me. Not my parents. Not the police. Not even most of my friends." She sobbed, "I mean, everyone in school always thought he was strange, but they didn't think he was the harmful kind of strange."

She leaned back in the passengers seat as she took a deep breath. "I was alone because I'd filed reports against him that were dropped, and it made me look like I was the crazy one. My parents had me sent to get psychological help, which only increased the gossip. But then one day, Natalie Turner came up to me, and you know what she said?" she glanced over at Cody again.

Cody simply shrugged in response.

"She said, 'I believe you Emily'."

"Because it was happening to her too." Cody said, feeling incredible sympathy at this point, once again, because of everything these poor girls had had to endure.

Emily gave him a tearful nod. "And I know this sounds really bad, but for the first time in a long time, I was actually happy." She paused, "Happy that I wasn't the only one anymore. I wasn't so alone."

"That doesn't sound bad…" Cody replied, and Emily whipped her head around towards him so quickly, he drew back slightly.

"I was happy that another girl was being _raped_." Emily snapped, "You can't tell me that doesn't sound bad."

"Well, okay, it does, but…" Cody stopped himself. He was making a mess of the conversation. He tried to detour it slightly, "You were just…finally happy that someone understood what you were going through. I can't believe the cops never did anything about this guy." He paused for a moment, "And your _parents_…"

Emily shook her head briefly, "Honestly if I were my mother, I don't know if I'd have believed me either. I mean, how is a parent supposed to act when their daughter tells them a story like that?"

"Um, it wasn't a story." Cody replied quickly, hints of irritation in his voice, "And parents definitely shouldn't ignore things like that. They're supposed to be there for their children, not push them away. Especially over something so serious."

Emily sniffled a couple times, wiping the last tear off her cheek, and she managed to get a smile back on her face somehow. She was certainly strong. "Well." She turned towards Cody, "All that matters now is that he's gone. And I have you and your brother to thank for it."

Cody glanced back towards her as well, and when he noticed she was smiling again, he gave her a half smile in return, before breaking eye contact and look at the steering wheel.

It had gotten really quiet, so when Cody turned to glance at her yet again, he was shocked at how quickly her lips leaned over and seized his.

**X**

"Hey hotness." Zack greeted as he lazily leaned onto the side of the bar. He gazed into the eyes of a pretty good looking woman, who was in the process of receiving a drink from the bartender, "Ever been hit on by a _real _hit man?"

The woman's eyes widened slightly at the display in front of her. This boy was obviously sloshed. Too sloshed to realize he looked and sounded like a moron, and _definitely_ too sloshed to realize that he'd crossed paths with her before.

She laughed slightly, "Can't say that I have…" What was that he'd said about being a real hit man? He was more wasted than she'd thought mere seconds ago.

She stirred her drink with the cherry that was on top of it, and glanced back over towards him. He was still gazing at her, eyes half way open. But at least he wasn't a complete mess. He was dressed nicely, casually, and seemed like he was having a lot of fun. Nothing wrong with that.

Zack squinted his eyes slightly at the woman before him. He could swear he'd seen her somewhere before, he just couldn't quite place it, considering his head was feeling pretty fuzzy right now. Traffik had proved to be a much better club. The strippers' show hadn't started yet, and Zack was still looking forward to it, but this girl had caught his eye. She was just too pretty to ignore. "So…" he began, as he stood up a little straighter, "What's your name?"

The woman gave him a tentative look, but smiled none-the-less before answering his question. "It's Tina."

"Oh snap." He replied, his hand flying over his mouth. He _knew_ she looked familiar. Upon her revealing her name to him, something clicked. She was the waitress from Ihop. He was surprised he remembered it so fast, considering how much he'd had to drink. But hey. He hadn't reached the status of complete imbecile yet. He laughed slightly and pointed a finger at her, "I remember youuuu…"

Tina laughed lightly, along with him, trying to make the situation a little less awkward for herself. "I remember you too."

"Hey sorry if me and my brother bothered you for too long last night. We had a lot to do." Zack explained, as he turned around and signaled the bartender over. He knew he'd reached his alcohol limit already, but he was at least going to have one more shot with…Tina.

"Yeah." Tina began, as she picked up her glass and took a drink, "Things looked pretty serious at your table."

"It _was_ serious." Zack replied, taking a moment to sigh heavily, "Everything in my life is so fucking serious."

Tina was slightly taken aback by his blunt comment, but he was drunk. She wasn't going to run away repulsed just yet. For some reason, something in his voice was telling her that he was being truthful, and that it wasn't the alcohol talking when he said his life was that 'fucking serious'.

"Except for right now." Zack added, and the bartender sat down two shots in front of him. He took one for himself, before scooting one towards her.

He whipped his bangs to the side in one fluid motion of his head, and gave her a pretty dreamy glance, at least, to her it was dreamy, and she couldn't help but pick up the shot.

"To life." Zack mumbled as he held the shot up towards her.

Tina couldn't manage to stop smiling at him, despite the fact that his two-word toast had been rather lame, and she clinked her shot glass to his. "To life."

They both downed them. Zack sat his shot glass down on the counter and it made a loud knock as it impacted the surface of the bar. "Whoo!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together a single time, "That was intense."

Tina sat her glass down gently and nodded in agreement. It had been a pretty harsh shot. She gazed at him as he stared off into the crowd, watching everyone dancing and drinking their nights away. The noise for some reason seemed to increase, and she leaned over slightly towards him, "So!…When you say 'hit man', what do you-"

"What?" Zack interrupted her loudly, as he leaned closer to her as well. They were trying to communicate without having to completely scream their lungs out to hear each other. But they didn't' know how well that would actually work, "Hit man? Who said anything about a hit man?"

Tina blinked in confusion. "Uh…you did."

Zack's jaw dropped slightly as he motioned towards himself with both hands, "I did?"

Tina nodded towards him again, and Zack threw his head back and laughed, trying to cover up his obvious mistake. "Oh fuck…" he mumbled, slapping his hand over his eyes and rubbing them stressfully. 'Oh _fuck_!' he thought to himself as he tried to regain any kind of logical thinking he could. Time for some damage control. He turned towards her again, a smirk on his face, "You'll have to forgive me because I've had _a lot_ to drink." He paused, throwing his hands up in the air for dramatic effect, "So at this point, there is just _no _tellingwhat kind of crazy shit is going to come out of my mouth!"

"Right..," Tina replied hesitantly, picking up her drink again to have some more. It wouldn't take her too long to be on the same level as he was. She had always been a lightweight. But she didn't mind if it meant getting to hang out with this interesting character for a while longer.

An hour later, she was stumbling out the entrance of the club with him. She was leaned on him for support, because she definitely was in no state to support her self. Zack was still drunk him self, but he was certain that Tina had surpassed his level of intoxication at this point. It was after eleven now, and Zack was pretty sure the strippers were going to perform at midnight. But he wasn't going to be able to stick around for them anymore. He really didn't care either. He had a girl on his shoulder. He'd been out drinking. Overall a decent night. He shifted Tina's weight onto his left shoulder so that he had a better grip on her, before getting ready to raise his right arm to call for a taxi.

"You!" he heard someone bellow loudly, and he whipped around to see just who the hell had the nerve to snap at him like that.

When his eyes landed on the person whose voice that had belonged to, his eyes lit up, and he smiled, "Hey! Wiley! Where you been buddy?"

Tina managed to pick her head up off of Zack's shoulder, "Who is Wiley?" her words were slurring, but Zack still had managed to understand what she'd said.

"Met him at Panther's Lounge." Zack replied, smiling towards her, before glancing upwards in thought, "Or was it Lion's Lounge?" Neither of these had sounded right. He sighed, shaking his head slightly, "Oh well, whatever the fuck it was, I met him there." His smile towards her returned.

She smiled back, lost in that dreamy gaze of his and she leaned in for a kiss.

He gave her a quick peck on the mouth, leaving her quite unsatisfied, as he grabbed her by the wrist, and led her a few steps over to where a parking meter stood. He made sure she was in a position where she was getting enough support from it, before spinning away from her and walking towards Willie, a goofy smirk on his face, "Man you missed a hell of a party inside there. I would have bought you a shot if you'd have shown up sooner!"

Willie glared daggers at Zack. "You little son of a bitch!" he snapped, his chest puffing out slightly as he advanced towards the smaller guy, "You got me banned from my favorite bar!"

"Hey hey…" Zack countered, as he held up his arms, "No need for name calling."

Willie scowled. Could this kid take nothing seriously? Annoyance burned in his eyes, and he wanted nothing more than to pummel this guy senseless. He glanced over his shoulder, where a few other members of his 'crew' were sitting on the edges of their motorcycle seats. A couple of them gave a slight nod in his direction, and Willie turned on Zack again and cracked his knuckles.

Zack gave him a questioning gaze, along with a frown. His eyebrow raised slightly, "You seem angry about something. You know, maybe you should try and hookup tonight. Relieve some tension." He leaned towards him, and nudged him with his elbow, before pointing at his face, "It'd turn that frown upside downnn!" following this, he gave him a wink, and laughed shortly.

Willie was furious now. Zack was smirking so big on the inside. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was in full control of his actions at this point, and for some reason he was enjoying pushing this big ol' biker's emotional and mental buttons _immensely. _

Zack frowned, "Oh come on…" he said, his voice slightly raspy, the way that it always got when he was poking fun, "You didn't think that was at least a _little_ funny? You gotta lighten up there Wiley."

"It's…WILLIE!" the biker roared furiously, before swinging his monstrous arm at Zack.

Direct impact. There were a couple gasps, and the sound of a thud.

Zack blinked a few times. His vision had completely blacked out, and when it finally came into focus again, he noticed his face was against the pavement.

"Oh my God!" Tina screamed, stumbling towards him. She leaned down and grabbed him around the arm, attempting to help in any way possible, getting him back up off the ground.

Zack spit a nice mouthful of blood onto the concrete, and scowled. He felt the weaker-than-weak-could-be grip of Tina's hands wrapped around his arm right below the shoulder, and he slowly stood up. After he was on his feet again, he closed his eyes for a second and shook his head a back and forth a couple times. He was dizzy from that punch. But he was pretty sure it'd killed off a bit of his intoxication.

"Are you alright?" Tina murmured into his ear, a look of worry in her eyes.

"Yeah I'm good." Zack mumbled in reply. He regained his footing and glanced at Tina. "Wait here for just a minute." He motioned a finger in the air, signaling for her to remain where she was.

Tina nodded. She didn't have any intentions of going anywhere without him. And definitely not in her current state of mind either. Though that punch had really freaked her out. It was so hard, she wondered how in the hell he'd even gotten back up after taking it straight in the face.

Zack stormed towards Willie, who'd retreated back over to his friends with bikes. They stood in a small huddle, laughing, carrying on, and giving Willie shoulder pats for his act of violence. Zack was done. No way did anyone _ever _get away with something like this. If only he had his twins with him, he'd waste this guy away without so much as a second thought. But he couldn't have necessarily just shot him out in the open like this. And although most of the time, Zack _did _bring at least one of his weapon's out with him in public, just in case…but he hadn't tonight. Because he knew he was going to be getting drunk, and he probably would have already hauled off and shot somebody, or tried to show off the fact that he had a gun to impress some girl, or flashed it unintentionally to _someone_. So he gave himself a mental pat on the back, and huffed. Cody did _not _give him enough credit for his brainpower.

Willie's back was turned towards him, but he wasted no more time. He tapped him roughly on the shoulder, and the split second he'd turned his head around, Zack clenched his fist, pulled it back, and landed a jaw shattering punch on the biker's face.

There had been so much power behind Zack's punch, in fact, that Willie lost his balance and spiraled off the side of his bike and onto the ground, once again, in spread eagle position, on his stomach.

Not one jaw didn't drop among anyone who'd just seen what'd happened, and Zack spit another mouthful of blood onto the ground, before glaring at Willie's biker buddies. They were a little too stunned to say anything, so Zack decided it best to just leave before things got out of hand, and the cops got called or involved. He'd do anything to avoid that.

He stalked away from them, wiping a little bit of blood off his mouth with his shirt sleeve, and his eyes landed back on Tina, who had seemingly been trying to catch a glimpse of what had just happened. He slung his arm around her waist, and with his other signaled for a taxi.

"How…?" Tina asked, completely baffled as she glanced over her shoulder at the biker's. Willie hadn't moved a single inch still. One of his friends was knelt down beside him, tending to the large man.

"Hmm?" Zack mumbled, as he turned around to glance at the scene again as well, "Oh that's nothing." He waved his hand off over his shoulder, as if to dismiss the entire situation.

"He's twice your size!" Tina droned, nearly in a state of shock.

"Size never matters." Zack replied, as the taxi pulled up. He opened up the door for Tina, and helped her inside the backseat, before flopping himself in after her. He smirked towards her, "Except for in certain situations. Like the one that's about to take place between us."

Tina giggled into his shoulder, already having forgotten about the punches that had just been exchanged between this mysterious boy and the big biker Wiley, it seemed. She frowned for a second and tried to pull her mind into a sober state for a split second. It was weird. She still didn't know this guy's name. And she was about to go back to his room with him. Did it really even matter anymore? She was getting ready to pass out on his shoulder. She'd be lucky to remember _her_ own name until tomorrow morning.

**X**

Cody emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground, at the foot of the tree that his rental car was _still _parked underneath. What the _fuck_ had he been thinking?

He was ill, weak in the knees, after the reality of his choices had hit him a few moments ago. It was dark and quiet in the park. They had light by way of a small street lamp, which was a few feet away, and only the sounds of crickets chirping and a distant owl hooting could be heard.

He picked himself up, but barely, seeing as he'd collapsed to his hands and knees while hurling literally everything he had in his stomach onto the tree roots. He was still shaking pretty uncontrollably. Not obsessively, but uncontrollably, as he did his best to keep his footing. His nerves were completely shot, and after having to heave so heavily, he was feeling rather dizzy. He placed his hand on the trunk of the tree, and leaned on it lightly for support. His head hung low, bangs in his face as he did his best just to breathe, and calm himself down.

"Are you okay?"

He heard Emily call to him, but he didn't look up. It was too much. Way too much to handle, and he couldn't believe just how out of control he'd let himself be today. He couldn't look her in the eyes. It'd probably make him get sick again, and he was pretty sure, he didn't have anything left inside his belly to up-heave. Still, he figured he should try to at least answer her question, because in all truth, this wasn't her fault. It was his. "I'll be fine." He murmured, still not looking up at her, but holding his arm up in the air to signal confirmation that he was indeed, okay at the moment. He wouldn't be for long though, and he wouldn't be for the rest of the night, or probably _ever_, because of what he'd just allowed to happen. He had to get the _fuck _out of this city, out of this state, and away from her.

"Did I upset you?"

Why was she asking questions? _Why_? He grunted out a "no." in response to her, and he felt his heart rate slowing down slightly, even though he wasn't sure it should be. He was in deep shit if anyone caught wind of this. _Very _deep shit.

He squeezed his eyes shut and stood up straight, still trying to avoid looking at her. He held his fist to his chest and felt the rhythm of his heartbeat. It was still going a decent rate. But not near what it had been a moment ago. He knew the statistics. He knew what rate it _should _be going, because he'd read a do-it-yourself book on how to test your own heart rate. He was pretty sure he had been getting close to a heart attack. And he was severely _shocked_ that he hadn't had a panic attack. Though his little fit he'd thrown a second ago could probably count as one.

He heard Emily's sigh of annoyance, before she snapped a, "Will you just _look _at me?" towards him.

Cody took a deep breath. He didn't want to look at her. But he was sure going to try. He opened his eyes, and they landed on her. She was perched on the edge of the back seat, her legs dangling out of the open car door. Windows were still a bit foggy. And just like that, Cody was turned away from her, leaned over, and puking again.

He was so damn pissed right now. All he was managing to get up was bile at this point, but the overwhelming shamefulness he was feeling kept forcing him to heave and heave, until he felt like he was going to die.

A couple minutes later, he sighed, exhausted, and he managed to crawl a couple feet away from the puke pile, collapsing and rolling over onto his back. He placed his hands on his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut, as he tried to catch his breath. "God help me." He mumbled to himself.

He really wanted to be left alone. But he felt Emily's presence beside him a moment later. She made minimal noise as she sat down beside him, her legs folded over one another Indian style.

She was feeling pretty upset at the situation right now, but not for the same reasons Cody was. Everything had been seemingly going fine. And then it was like this boy's personality had flopped on her, out of the blue. There was no warning. Then he's getting sick, and not saying much, not even acting like he wants to give her a glance. She didn't understand. She didn't know if she _wanted_ to understand.

He should have never come back. He _knew_ it earlier. He had a bad feeling about coming back to see this girl. But he couldn't resist the urge. All because he'd fallen in love with the way she'd made him feel last night. He'd displayed sloppy self-control in this situation, and he wanted nothing more than to kick himself in the ass for it. There was no excuse for what he'd just allowed to happen. _None._

But, for now, he needed to stop giving himself a mental beating and focus on getting Emily home, and getting the heck out of this neighborhood.

He took one more deep breath. He had to take action. There wasn't time to throw up again. He opened one eye and glanced at her with it. She was staring off aimlessly, and he sat up so that he could draw her attention in.

"Let's uh…" Cody began, and when she made eye contact with him, his ability to withstand the discomfort of all of this was tested. He half coughed, half choked for a second before he was able to continue. "I really have to get you home." When he noticed the look in her eyes, he immediately added, "And it's not because of anything that you've done. It's just that…" he paused again, upon seeing her face look a little more relieved, and her gaze relaxed slightly, "My brother and I have to get up early. We have a long day ahead of us."

"Stuff to do with your job?" she wondered curiously. Something about the fact that this boy did what he did for a living was so fascinating. It wasn't everyday you actually got to meet a genuine hit man. He'd proven to be such an excitement, and so mysterious. It made her want to keep him forever, and spend the rest of her life just trying to get to know him, because she could tell in his eyes that he had hundreds of stories to tell. Stored away in the depths of his memory. And he didn't get to share them with anyone. She badly wished she could hear just one.

"Uh, yeah." Cody replied, as he pushed himself up off the ground. He reached down and pulled her up as well. She seemed startled by the sudden rush, so he played it off, "Sorry, I just didn't realize how late it was. I really need to get out of here."

Emily gave him a nod. She felt like crying. He'd told her that she hadn't done anything to upset him, but her instincts told her differently. Could you really trust the word of a hit man?

She pondered towards the car, and Cody found that the car keys were still sitting in the ignition. They climbed inside, and Cody started the car. He gave her a soft half-smile, before turning his head back over his shoulder as he prepared to reverse. He just really needed to stay focused right now on getting her home. After that, he could have another breakdown. Throw another fit. Whatever it was going to be, he felt the urge to do it, burning inside him pretty badly.

He shifted into reverse without looking, and inched out a few feet, before his eyes landed on something that was really important he got removed from the car. He grasped it, before glancing at Emily again and extending it towards her. "You might…want to put that back on." He commented.

"Oh. Yeah." She replied quietly, as she took her uniform blouse from him.

He did a damn good job of not looking at her while she re-clothed herself from the waist up, and he finished reversing, shifted into drive, and drove out of the park.

The drive to her block was short, and even though he knew it was his own stupidity that was forcing them to say goodbye to each other forever at this very moment, there was still that small percentage that didn't want to. He'd never see her again. And he'd never forget how much hope she'd re-instated into him the night before, but this entire thing had been a mistake. He hoped she wouldn't feel that way about him in return. He hoped she would remember him as her hero, despite the fact that he'd been a jerk to her for the last half hour.

"Well…" Emily said, as she glanced over at him, trying to smile, but only managing a sad excuse for one, "I'll never forget you."

Cody gazed towards her, allowing him self to be lost in her this one last time. "Take care of yourself." He replied. He was never going to forget her either. He knew that was what she had _wanted _him to say in return to her, but he just couldn't allow her to hold on to any single shred of hope that she'd ever see him again. Because…she simply just wouldn't.

She remained quiet for a second, her eyes still peering at him, as if she was willing him to say something more, _anything_ more to her before she left his car. But he didn't. He had turned away from her again. His eyes were faced forward, and she knew that the connection she'd felt with him earlier was going to have to be disconnected. She sighed, "Well, bye then."

Cody glanced back towards her and gave her a slight wave. He was waiting for her to shut the door so he could get out of there, but when she didn't, he looked over again, and she was leaned down looking at him. "By the way," she began, "You never even told me your name."

Cody realized this was true, and that in some way he'd saved himself. By some miracle, he'd managed to keep his mouth shut concerning his name, and thank God for that. He laughed faintly, and briefly.

"You're not going to tell me it, are you?" Emily asked, frowning towards him, wondering why he found it funny. She understood the whole secrecy thing, because he'd been vague with her all night. And she knew it had to do with his job, but he could have at least done her the decency of telling her his name. Just so she could place a face with a name when he'd come across her mind in the future.

"My name is whatever you want it to be." Cody finally replied.

And with that, Emily closed the door. He watched her begin to walk away, and exhaled, glancing up at the ceiling of the car, "Jesus Christ…" he muttered, rubbing his eyes stressfully. His gaze fell again and deadpanned the steering wheel. "I just slept with a _fucking _fifteen year old."

**X**

"Hold on, hold on." Zack mumbled, extremely grumpy as he threw his comforter off. He stumbled into his boxers, almost falling twice in the process. Tina blinked up at him, completely engulfed in the comforter except for her eyes up, as she watched Zack turn around towards her. "Sorry about this." He said, "It'll just be a minute."

She nodded, no intention of leaving, seeing as the night was still decently young. Well…to her anyways. It was only a little after 2am. Still plenty of time to mess around. Plus she was still kind of drunk.

Zack grumbled curse words to himself, all the way to the door. He knew it was Cody. The way he'd knocked, had given him away. He had a soft fist. A womanly knock.

Zack unlocked the door and cracked it, shooting a glare towards his brother, "Dude, get out of here! You knew I was going to be busy tonight!" he snapped in a loud whisper, before noticing that something didn't seem quite right about the way his brother looked right now. He seemed frantic, unstable. Which, happened a lot actually, however, he was also ghostly pale in the face. That triple combo meant trouble.

Cody rolled his eyes however, at Zack's last response, "Is your date drunk?"

Zack raised an eyebrow, "Yes…" he turned his head to the side slightly and gave him a pointed look. "_Why_?"

Cody was already annoyed with Zack. "Who cares why!" he snapped, a little louder than he'd intended to, "My point is that she's not going anywhere, and I _need_ to talk to you it's an emergency!"

Zack glanced back towards Tina again, who was still watching him curiously. He held up a finger to her, signaling he was going to be a minute, as he opened up the door and walked out into the hallway with his spastic twin. However, he was annoyed now too. He'd decided to spend tonight with a woman, and of _course_, Cody would come back and attempt to ruin it for him. "What is it?" he asked sternly, another glare on his face as he held his arms up slightly.

Cody took a deep breath and did a double take towards Zack when he noticed he had a little bit different coloration on his face than normal, "What the _hell _happened to your eye?" It was swollen, and black.

Zack exhaled stressfully, and closed his eyes for a second, "Cody, I _swear_ to God…"

"Alright alright." Cody said, realizing that Zack really just wanted to get back to his female-companion, and was not going to answer any questions about his eye right now. He watched his brother fold his arms over his chest and once again, shoot him an impatient glare.

Cody glanced towards the ground, and unknowingly began to pace a bit. He couldn't bring himself to look at Zack again yet. "I…" his words started off broken, "I did something ridiculous tonight."

Zack huffed. "What? You forgot to floss?" he asked sarcastically, thinking that if his brother had interrupted him for that, he was going to get an earful.

Cody forced a cold stare at Zack, a frown on his face, "_No_."

"Well then what?" Zack demanded, even more impatient at this point as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and placed his hands on his hips.

Cody pondered nervously for a few seconds again, wondering what the best way to tell his brother about this would be. He had argued mentally with himself all the way home. He'd thought about just hiding this from everyone, even Zack. But he couldn't keep something like this from his brother. There were no secrets between them. Plus it was going to drive him _insane_ holding it in like this, so he'd ultimately decided to tell Zack. There was no doubt whatsoever in his trust in Zack. "You remember Emily?"

"Uh…sure." Zack replied, as his head scanned over the name Emily. He thought hard for a couple seconds, trying to pull any memory of that name from his head. Ah ha! Got it, "Yeah yeah, the girl who called about the uh…"

"Mr. Duplay." Cody helped Zack out, wondering just how much alcohol his brother had really consumed. He'd just met Emily last night and he'd already almost forgotten her completely.

"_Who_?" Zack asked immediately.

Cody gave him a glare, now wondering if his brother's brain had completely turned to mush at some point during the day. It was like deja-vu. The sad thing being, he had just explained this to Zack that morning. "Her_ teacher._"

"Oh, yeah yeah." Zack replied, waving his hand through the air, as his head finally managed to get to the right place. He remembered now.

Cody continued to gaze at Zack blankly. "Wow." He mumbled, shaking his head slightly.

Zack chose to ignore Cody's sarcasm because he was _still _waiting for the jackass to tell him something mind blowing. At least it better be mind blowing for him to come back without so much as a warning, when he knew full well what Zack had put on his agenda for the night.

"I saw her today." Cody told, as he wrung his hands together, once again trying to avoid eye contact with Zack.

Zack held a hand up, "So? The important thing would be that she _didn't _see _you_. What's the big deal?" he didn't really understand yet why Cody would be a frantic mess over this. Catching a glimpse of paying customer's usually wasn't a huge deal, as long as the customer didn't see them in return. And Cody _had _gone back to the old hotel to retrieve a lost item. He was on that side of town. But he also knew the rules. So.

Cody realized that for Zack to really understand what he was getting at, he was just going to have to be blunt with him. Which he should have known in the first place. There was just no easy way to say what he was about to say. "I guess what I meant to say was, I went looking for her."

Zack raised an eyebrow, but the expression on the rest of his face remained unchanging, even though he was already flaming furious. "Why the hell would you do that?"

"I couldn't stop thinking about her."

"So? I can't stop thinking about how good a Subway sandwich would taste right now, but you don't see me driving off to get one."

"Can you be serious about this please?"

"I _am _being serious."

"You're being a smart ass."

"Well it's better than being a _dumb ass_. Which is the perfect name for you right now by the way." Zack retorted sarcastically, "I can't believe you went back to that side of town to see a _client_. It's bad enough we're still in Sioux City at all!"

"You think I haven't thought about all of that?" Cody snapped back, his voice rising a little too high again.

Zack held up both arms, urging him to calm down, and Cody did, but the two of them felt pretty heated with each other at this point, so it took them a minute to resume conversation.

"_Look._" Zack said pointedly. "We can talk about this in the morning." He then pointed his finger at the hotel room door, "But there is a girl, _without_ clothes on, in my bed right now, ready to roll, and I am _not _going to keep her waiting for me any longer because _you_ decided to go off and be the biggest idiot on the face of the planet, and now you can't handle it." He finished his spiel, dramatically, and there was no question of how furious he was at this point, because it was evident in his breathing pattern, and it was written all over his face.

Zack and Cody glared silently at one another for a brief moment, before Zack spun on his heel and began to walk away.

He heard Cody clear his throat from behind him, and he halted his walking, fists clenched at his sides. He closed his eyes and mouthed a silent prayer that the good Lord would grant him the self-control to not walk over there and knock his brother's lights out just to get him to shut up.

"I wasn't finished." Cody told gruffly, as he watched his brother turn around to face him again, "It gets worse."

Zack, for the life of him, couldn't think of a reason as to how it could possibly be worse at this point, seeing as Cody had already gone back to the side of town where they'd just shot and killed a man, risking being seen, or ID'ed by the teacher's wife, all because he just had to see that girl again.

Cody swallowed hard. It was now or never. And even though Zack was pretty angry, he was still his brother. He'd dealt with him being angry before. So he took a deep breath, and out it came. "I kind of…slept with her."

* * *

**AN : That wraps up the second part! I hope everyone liked it okay. I really enjoyed writing Zack's scenes especially this time around. XD I had talked a little bit last time about London being brought in soon. She will make a guaranteed entrance next chapter when the boys finally take off to Sin City, so I hope everyone sticks around for her arrival! Thank you all for reading. :)**


	3. Lady Luck

**AN : Hello everyone! I want to start off by saying thank you for the continued support of this story despite how long you have all had to wait for this update. I really appreciate the heartfelt words/reviews/pm's/comments. They make me smile! :) Next I just want to say that I do apologize for the delay. I've literally had this chapter written for several weeks now, and I'm quite pleased with the first half of it, however, from the moment the boys arrive in Vegas, onward, I just couldn't manage to make anything sound right. So the last half of this chapter, has literally been re-written about four or five times. Finally I just had to throw a stop sign in front of myself and so I hope that it's not too much of a disaster to read. I hope that you all enjoy it the way you've enjoyed the rest of it so far. **

**Also! - someone did point out that some of my knowledge of the guns is a little off. And I do apologize for that as well. I have to admit I don't know a whole lot about firearms, but will definatley try and do better with that in future chapters. Thank you guys for bearing with me, despite that fact. :/ **

**Without further ado...a nice long chapter for you!**

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_Disclaimer : I do not own Suite Life On Deck or any of the characters associated. All rights reserved to Disney. _

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Attached At The Hit

Part 3 - Lady Luck

X

Zack silently stared towards his brother. Had he heard him correctly? He held his hand up behind his ear and leaned in Cody's direction, turning his head to the side as he did so. "Come again?"

Cody bit his lower lip in frustration, though vaguely enough that Zack didn't see him do it. Was Zack really going to make him stand here and repeat what he'd said? As shameful as he already felt about the entire thing to begin with? Oh well. He supposed somehow he deserved this. He sighed, and broke eye contact with his upset twin brother, who was still posing in the same stance waiting for his answer. He threw his arms in the air and shot his gaze into the distance. "I slept with her."

Zack waited a mere couple seconds before he faced his brother's direction and let his hand fall to his side. He squinted his eyes towards Cody, and remained leaning towards him as he attempted to find any words towards his twin that didn't involve 'fucking' and 'idiot'. "You sle-?" He cut himself off. He was completely at a loss for words. His right hand balled into a fist as he held it in front of his mouth, feeling his breath upon it. He closed his eyes, and mentally told himself to breathe.

Cody stole a glance back towards Zack. He had expected this. He knew his brother wasn't going to take this well. Hell, he himself hadn't taken it well. But what was he supposed to do? While he knew he had done something at the highest measure, horrible, possibly even unforgivable, if there was one thing he _never _did - it was hide things from his brother. He'd tried to before on several occasions. But the guilt of not being open and honest with Zack would slowly eat away at him. He'd toss and turn in his sleep, lose his appetite. He'd suffer extremes when he was hiding something from Zack. Now, this wasn't to say he was going to catch much shut-eye tonight regardless. Because sleeping with a fifteen year old was quite a bigger guilt-trip than accidentally setting your brother's shoes on fire. Or walking out of a convenience store with a pack of gum you realized you were holding in your hand. They were bad. But this was worse. _Much _worse.

"What the _fuck. _Were you thinking?" Zack finally managed to say, causing Cody to snap his concentration out of his thoughts and back to the reality of the situation at hand.

When Cody's eyes met Zack's again, he felt quite uncomfortable. Zack had been mad at him before. But he'd never seen his eyes look the way they were looking now. Cody didn't know if he should shout 'April Fools!' - even though it was August, or not. He was almost regretting telling Zack at all. Of course, the guilt would damn near kill him, but it seemed pretty bearable, compared to his brother's murderous gaze right now. Cody swallowed hard, "I..." he glanced down towards the floor, "I don't believe I was thinking at all."

Zack huffed in response. "I'd say you weren't thinking!" he snapped, and he realized that if he started ranting at Cody now, he might not stop for a while. He might not be able to continue containing his anger towards his brother. The world's most current, up-to-date, number one fuck-up. But you know what? Screw it. Cody deserved to get the 3rd degree for this one. Hell. He deserved the ten-thousandth degree. Zack flung his arm out, with a pointed finger, "You went traipsing back to that side of town to have sex with a _fifteen year old_? You're supposed to be the fucking _smart _one out of the two of us! Have you lost your God-damned mind?"

Cody hadn't lifted his gaze from the floor yet. He wanted to protest about two different things right now. The first one was about the fact that he hadn't gone back to that side of town with the purpose of sleeping with Emily. He really, honestly hadn't. He'd gone back to simply talk to her again. To grasp onto more of that feeling she'd given him the previous night. The second one was due to Zack's voice having raised several notches since he'd begun to speak again. But he wasn't going to dare say anything. Not right now.

"I cannot believe you right now!" Zack continued, running a hand through his hair stressfully, as he tore his gaze away from his brother, and turned from him completely. He grasped his face in both his hands and rubbed his eyes stressfully, ignoring the throbbing of his one black eye. He mumbled a few things that Cody couldn't quite make out, before spinning towards him again, "She's _fifteen_."

Cody didn't really know if Zack was expecting him to reply with an, 'I know' or not. After all, Cody was _well _aware of her age. But if he _did _respond, it might give Zack the impression that he's responding sarcastically, which would only make the dilemma worse.

"You're _twenty-three._" Zack stated. "She's _fifteen_!"

Once again, Cody was torn between responding or remaining silent. Of course, he _wanted _to respond to Zack, but he still felt like he shouldn't say anything at all. One thing Cody did notice, was that five minutes ago, Zack could barely remember this girl's name. Somehow now, he was remembering her age. He'd seen this happen before though. When Zack was in the right frame of mind, he could recall details. Cody hated him for it. It made it very easy for Zack to throw things in his face. Like now.

"And now, to top it all off, we're going to have to black-list this city." Zack began again, throwing his arms up. It was time for the dramatic, arm flailing to begin. "Hell we're going to have to black-list this whole fucking state!" He began to pace slowly. He wasn't used to being the one doing the logical thinking. But his brain was a mass of tangled thoughts right now. "HQ is going to want to know the reason. And when they find out they're going to have _both _our asses for it!"

Cody sighed, as he continued to simply listen to the booming voice of his brother.

"So congratulations Cody." Zack finally had hints of sarcasm in his angry tone, as he stopped pacing and faced his brother again. "Not only did your little 'screw-session' tonight fuck 'what's-her-face' six ways from Sunday, it fucked us both six ways from Sunday too!" Zack turned away from Cody again, and he mentally started counting to ten. He was interrupted at two though, because his brother finally decided to say something.

"Emily."

Zack spun around again, "What?"

"Emily." Cody corrected, "Her name is Emily."

Zack did his best to hide his fury as he turned his head to the side and bit down on his tongue. Never in his life had he been so upset with Cody. He was _still _completely missing the point. All because of that stupid girl. "Does her name really even fucking matter at this point?"

"It does to me." Cody replied calmly.

"Oh it does?" Zack asked, his tone now bearing a soft-sarcasm. The fact that Cody didn't seem too upset about what HQ was going to do irritated him to no end. His brother also didn't seem to care about the fact that them having to blacklist an entire state was going to ruin their flawless record. In four years, they hadn't had to blacklist _any _area. It was like Cody was throwing it away over a girl. A _fifteen _year old girl. A _client_. What the _fuck_.

His stare pierced through his brother's. This idiot was actually so serious about this girl, that out of everything he'd just said, the first thing Cody showed any kind of concern about was the fact that he'd once again forgotten her name. His fist clenched again. He felt his face getting red and hot. He was done.

It happened in a blur.

Cody's back hit the wall, and his hand flew to his lip. He shook his head slightly, trying to get his vision back in focus as he stumbled. He felt warmth in the bottom of his mouth, and the taste of blood quickly followed. He glared up towards Zack, "You feel better?"

"No, I don't." Zack stated very simply.

Almost immediately, Cody found his forehead buried against the wall, his back now facing Zack. He was pretty sure that if he had to take another punch like that, he was going to lose a tooth. His head turned down, and he held his hand underneath his mouth as a violent stream of blood poured out of his mouth and into it. A moment later, he coughed more out. He was trying to keep it from hitting the floor, but it wasn't going to work for long, cause his hand was filling up. He couldn't _believe _how hard Zack had hit him just now. And twice. To make matters worse, now his adrenaline was going. He was furious.

He picked his head up and spun around to Zack, who was waiting to give him another punch. Cody slipped out of the way just in time, and Zack's fist smashed right into the rock wall.

"I can't believe you just hit me _twice, _and then attempted to make it a _third_!" Cody snapped angrily, taking a few steps back from Zack and deciding to forget about the blood in his hand since it was seeping out from between his fingers anyway. He shook his hand out, flinging the blood everywhere. Flecks of it sprayed against the walls and carpet.

Zack shook his stinging hand after it having impacted the wall so hard, before glaring towards his brother, "_Really_?" he asked, using his left hand to massage his right one because it had immediately started aching. "Because you've known me for a long time, and I'm pretty sure you should have seen that coming."

"Now's not the time for your smart-ass remarks Zack! You always want to solve issues with violence!" Cody snapped towards him, occasionally stealing a glance towards Zack's crumbled hand.

"No, no." Zack smirked, almost laughing at this, "See, you're not going to drag me into being a bad guy here." he pointed a finger and shook it at Cody.

"I'm not trying to make you feel like a bad guy!" Cody spat some more blood out, "I _know _this is my fault. I know it was wrong, and I _know _that I screwed up! This is _not _why I told you!" he continued, as he used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe off his mouth, which was throbbing horribly at this point. In fact, he was pretty sure his bottom jaw was going numb. "I told you because you're my _brother_. Because I _need _to be able to rely on you even when I've done something wrong!"

"You can rely on me." Zack seethed, as he cringed when he let his injured hand fall to his side. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He may not have crushed the bones in his right hand, but he broke something. Guaranteed. "_Especially_ when you need some sense literally beat back into your brain. Which you obviously do. Didn't think I'd ever have to say that about _you_."

Cody didn't reply, he only continued to glare towards Zack, and every other second either spit out some more blood or wipe it from his mouth.

"Though at this point I don't even know if _that _will help." He mumbled irritably, "And if you rely on me so much, why didn't you tell me about this earlier? Why didn't you tell me you wanted to see that girl again-I might have been able to fucking talk you out of going back!"

"You wouldn't have tried to talk me out of shit!" Cody snapped back angrily, his brows seemingly locked into a permanent slant. He flung his arm out to the side. Blood continued dripping out of his mouth and he felt like he was going to choke, but managed to maintain control. "You would have made fun of me, and cracked your jokes!" he then pointed a harsh finger towards Zack, "And then you would have made me feel like shit for quote, 'thinking too much about a client', unquote. Just like you always fucking do!"

Zack emitted a loud and frustrated growl. He was about to charge his twin and put him right through the fucking wall. But both boys were stopped, and their heads snapped in the direction of the hotel room door, to see Tina's head slowly emerge.

Cody glared at her, but straightened his posture a bit and wiped more dripping blood off of his mouth with his shirtsleeve. Really? The waitress? Leave it up to Zack.

Tina's eyes widened a little bit, when she took the scene in. It was slightly horrifying. The two boys she'd waitressed for at Ihop the night before, seemed to be in some kind of fight. The one who'd brought her home, already had a black eye from getting into it with a guy twice his size earlier. Now his _hand_ looked to be twice its normal size and swollen. The other one had blood, and a good amount of it at that, smeared all over his jaw. What the hell was going on? She'd heard yelling, and that's why she'd decided to check and see what was going on. But at this point, she almost wished she hadn't.

Cody and Zack's eyes slowly turned from Tina, and locked in a gaze again. This had gone on long enough, and they both knew it. Not only had they managed to injure themselves, each other, but they were also shocked they hadn't been thrown out of the hotel yet for a noise disturbance. It's something they knew they couldn't risk.

Cody hunched over and placed his hands on his knees. A split second later he was hacking and coughing, and he clutched his chest with his left hand before heaving up another mouthful of blood onto the carpet. He'd swallowed too much.

As Zack watched Cody spewing blood onto the floor, he made the mistake of attempting to cross his arms, a stance that he was so used to. When his left arm crunched over on top of his injured right hand, his eyes squeezed shut and he pressed his lips firmly together to stop himself from screaming. Yeah. It was broken.

Cody picked his head back up, and unable to handle what seemed to be the never-ending blood flow any longer, he began to stumble off. He bumped Zack's shoulder in the process, but left without a word.

Zack didn't even glance in his brother's direction. His adrenaline was still going, but he was going to shift his focus so he could use his energy on a different activity for the rest of the night. He squinted in pain as his gaze landed on Tina, who'd just turned to face him again after watching Cody stumble off. He waved his left hand towards her, signaling for her to get back inside the room. She did so, and Zack ignored the throbbing, and nearly unbearable at this point, pain in his hand as he followed suit, and slammed the door behind him.

X

"God…" Cody seethed in a whisper, as he locked the men's bathroom door behind him. He had managed to remove himself from Zack's presence, and find the public restroom in the hotel lobby so that he could do something about his blood-spewing mouth. He rushed to the sink, and leaned over, emptying the blood he had been retaining, but barely. And he was pretty sure he was going to owe the hotel _some _kind of fee for dripping from the fourth floor, all the way down to the lobby.

He felt so extremely sick right now. With Zack, and himself. Zack had never hit him that hard before, and Cody was having a hard time believing he hadn't deserved it anyway. It was just that…Zack was his brother. He could shoot people until the cows came home and not feel as shitty as he was now about having a tiff with Zack.

And now he'd gotten too worked up. He was sweaty, and he was irritated. This night had not gone at all like it should have. First the Emily thing. Then the Zack thing. What was it going to be next?

His thoughts came to a stop when he began to choke again, and he managed to haul some more blood out of his mouth. It wasn't that the wound from the punches were so bad anymore. It was the fact that he had just kept swallowing the blood. He braced himself on the sink with his right arm, hoping that he could get to a stopping point soon so that he could deal with his lip and be done with this night.

He didn't know what he was going to do come morning time. But he still would rather it come so this day could just be over. He spit out some more bloody phlegm, before reaching over with his blood stained right hand and grabbing some paper towels from the dispenser.

He began soaking up some of the blood from the inside of his lip, wincing in pain as he did so. But it didn't take long before Zack's words were booming in his memory.

He had been right.

Cody's poor decision making was going to get them in a heap of trouble. Cody had dragged his brother into something that would more than likely bare grim consequences. The right thing to do would be to blacklist the state. Which means it would excuse them from any further gigs in the area. For forever. And when HQ found out, they were going to want to know the reason. Not only, was it going to ruin their flawless record, because they'd never had to black-list an area before, but it was going to probably get them both suspended as well when the excuse was that Cody had had sex with a client. A fifteen-year-old client at that. A minor. Jailbait. However you wanted to say it. Talk about a deadly sin.

Sure, Cody could tell HQ it was his fault, but that wouldn't matter. Zack would go down with him regardless, because they worked as a _team_.

Cody disposed of the first blood soaked paper towel, before shoving a second one into his lower mouth. He held it there, and applied pressure, the searing pain no longer really even bothering him. His pain came second to his mind. His mind was his battlefield.

He'd have to figure out a way to make this up to Zack. There just _had _to be a way to keep him clean.

On top of that, what he wanted most right now, was to apologize to Zack for everything he'd put him through. I mean, he'd already upset Zack enough these past few weeks, but now this night had been the icing on the cake.

He needed his brother more than anything. And he'd fucked that up too.

He sighed through the paper towel still wadded up and stuffed into his bottom lip, and after a few more moments, he threw it away, and turned the faucet on. He gargled the cool water, letting it cleanse the wound the best it could. It took 11 cycles, before he noticed the water he was spitting out was clear again without blood. He turned the faucet off and glanced into the mirror.

So much for that promise he'd made to Zack about getting a grip on things.

X

Zack grunted for what must have been the hundredth time already in the hour. Fuck it. He wasn't going to be able to continue performing. Hell, he hadn't been able to perform well at all, even though he'd felt like he was going to be able to.

Tina seemed to be enjoying herself despite the fact. Too bad she wasn't getting the one-hundred-percent, full Zack-Attack experience. Zack prided himself during sexual activities. He always tried to leave a lasting impression on the girls who were lucky enough to be brought back to the hotels with him. But tonight was feeling pretty shameful for him so far. He just couldn't focus. And the pain in his right hand was preventing him from even getting excited. In fact, he was pretty sure he'd gone limp almost ten minutes ago.

Without warning, he pulled himself out of Tina and rolled over onto his back, to her side.

Tina snapped her head in his direction, clearly unsatisfied with his decision to stop the session, and she rolled towards him and propped her head up on her arm. "What is with you?"

Zack glanced towards her, and when her eyes met his, he looked away again. "Nothing. I'm just done."

Tina sat up in bed, the comforter falling off of her as she did so. Zack peeked at her bouncy breasts out of the corner of his eyes, and by the frown on her face, he could tell she was getting frustrated with him. He didn't blame her. He hated more than anything to get riled up in bed, and then be shut down abruptly. It didn't happen that often, but tonight he was going to waste a perfectly good lay.

He was shaken from his thoughts when he felt a leg slide over the top of his mid-section, and his attention was focused back on Tina, who'd had the audacity of climbing on top of him. He raised an eyebrow at her, but he felt a little panicked, seeing as his hand was broken, and she wasn't being very careful. And he swore to God, if she-

There was a sickening sounding crunch and Zack let out a yelp, as he flung Tina off of him. She flew into the wall with a thud and slid to the floor. Everything had happened in such a blur, that neither her, nor Zack really could say anything at first.

He was pacing the foot of the bed, groaning, cradling his broken hand. Tina realized her error and set her frustration with the guy aside as she stood up. "I'm sorry, did I?" she trailed off as Zack deadpanned her with a glare.

"Crush my already crushed hand with your fucking knee?" Zack snapped, as he resorted to placing it lightly underneath his left arm, protectively, "Yes! You did!"

Tina huffed and stood up quickly, not speaking a word to the angry boy at the foot of the bed. She stormed past him and began retrieving her clothes from various locations in the room.

Zack sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you like that, I just-"

He was cut off when she roughly walked past him, bumping his shoulder in the process.

"Would you stop for a second and listen to me?" Zack asked her, watching her sit down at the foot of the bed, her back turned to him as she pulled her dress over her head.

Tina remained quiet as she stood up again and let the dress fall down over her body, covering up her nudity from Zack, and her eyes wasted no time scanning the floor for her shoes. She spun around and stormed past Zack again, but this time when she decided to rough up against his shoulder, he stopped her forcefully, gripping her arm in his left hand so that when she tried to continue walking, she was jerked back and forced to face him.

"Stop. Just stop!" Zack snapped, irritated by the fact that she was attempting to play some kind of stupid mind-game with him. He was holding her in place with his left arm, and the look in her eyes almost seemed frightened at this. But that wasn't his intention. He just wanted her to listen. Because he truly did feel bad that tonight hadn't worked out for him self or for her. It's just that…shit had gotten in the way. It happened sometimes.

Tina's eyes were starting to get slightly red, and Zack needed to really hurry this up before he was stuck with her for the rest of the night just out of sympathy. Time to put on some charm, pretend to care, and manipulate his way through this. "Hey hey." He coaxed gently, releasing her arm and brushing a stray hair out of her face. "You." He placed his hand on her cheek, "Did nothing wrong tonight."

Tina's look of relief allowed Zack to faintly smile. But the truth was? He no longer cared about Tina's feelings. Right now, he had other things to worry about. Like his broken hand. HQ in the morning, and his brother.

X

"Hey."

Cody glanced up from his position on the hotel's front stairs. His gaze fell onto Zack, who took a couple steps down and sat beside him.

"Hey?" Cody replied, wondering if what was happening right now was supposed to actually be happening. He almost felt shocked by Zack's behavior at the moment. Because…as far as he was concerned, he should still be pretty angry. And…he should also be having sex right now. The fact that he was here? Sitting beside him? Didn't make sense yet.

The two brothers were silent for a few moments, occasionally stealing a glance at each other. Zack's hair was still a little wet from his recent shower, but it would be dry soon with the breeze that was currently blowing. Tina had left his room a little over a half hour ago. She had gotten back into bright spirits, considering Zack had pinned her against the wall and decided to make out with her one last time before she escaped out the hotel room door. That and the fact that Zack had really just wanted to get his non-broken hand on her nearly perfect breasts one last time too.

The warm shower had soothed the pain in his right hand a little, but he was still cradling it, and his eye looked worse than ever.

Cody's lip was pretty swollen, and pretty mangled looking. But he'd seen worse.

"So listen." Zack began, drawing Cody's attention in as he scuffed his shoe on the ground a couple of times. "You know I was thinking…HQ doesn't really need to find out about this."

Cody's jaw dropped slightly, and he struggled momentarily to find what he needed to say, "Zack…no. We can't just-"

"Just." Zack cut off his brother, who was clearly about to go on some kind of rant over how they 'needed to do the right thing.' He waved both hands around a bit, motioning him to stay quiet a moment. "Hear me out."

Cody shifted nervously in his position. He didn't know where Zack was going with this, but deceiving HQ wasn't really something he was prepared to do.

Zack sighed, and deadpanned a serious gaze at Cody. "The way I see it, we have two options here." He paused, and faced forward again. "Option one, is we tell HQ. We'll probably both be suspended for a long time. Not to mention all the legal trouble for violating the various policies, blah blah, and the rest of the stuff that was in our info packet when we first started, that honest to God," he paused again, glancing back at Cody as he placed a hand on his chest, "I did not read."

Cody glanced away from Zack. His elbows were propped up on his knees and his hands were clasped together. When his brother put it that way, option one sounded pretty grim.

"And then there's option two." Zack held up two fingers, and Cody's attention was drawn back towards him. "Which is, we leave HQ out of this entirely."

When Zack noticed Cody's reluctant gaze, he continued, "Look I don't know about you Cody, but I don't want to get suspended. I don't want to be in a place where HQ doesn't trust us. I don't want to have to pay a fine, and go through the trouble of being placed on probation." He finished up with a, "Especially over something stupid like this."

Cody glared towards his brother. He knew he had a bad memory, but had he forgotten already what he'd told him only a couple hours ago?

Zack shrugged, "Yeah so you slept with a fifteen year old." He frowned a bit at the thought that he was making it seem like no big deal. He wasn't necessarily trying to make it sound like it was inexcusable. But Cody was the king of self-criticization. Zack didn't need to try and make Cody feel any worse about things, because Cody was so damned hard on himself all the time, that he'd probably already mentally bashed himself enough. "There are worse things you could have done." He shifted his weight, and winced when he brushed the surface of the concrete with his right hand.

Though Cody had continued to remain silent, even after his last statement, Zack knew he was contemplating which option would be better. His facial expression was a mixture of confusion and misery.

Cody didn't know what to say in reply to his brother at the moment. There were too many things going on in his head. Could they really just let this go? Could _he_? The guilt and shame would eat him alive eventually. Part of him _knew _he should be honest about this. To suffer the consequences he deserved for what he'd done tonight.

He glanced over at Zack, who was attempting to massage his throbbing hand.

On the other side of things, he didn't want to drag his brother into being suspended for his foolish choices. Who did he owe the bigger favor to? Himself? To take what he deserved like a man and just deal with it? Zack would go down with him, but he'd get over it.

Deceiving HQ _could _work. But if they pulled it off, and somehow the truth surfaced later on down the line, the penalty would be…well. He didn't know. No one ever dared hide things like this from the people at the head of the foundation. There was really no telling what would happen if they found out.

_If. _

His brother had been really patient with him, despite the fact that he was the most _impatient _person on the face of the planet.

"What if HQ finds out about this anyway?" Cody asked finally, in a mumble, his head faced downwards like he was even ashamed to be having the discussion at all.

Zack sighed and leaned back slightly, "Do you trust that girl?"

Cody glanced over at Zack before scoffing. "I don't even really _know _that girl." He replied, not taking the time to remind Zack yet again, that her name was Emily.

"I wouldn't exactly say that." Zack replied, and his focused gazed down at a lone piece of gravel next to his shoe. He waited a split second before scuffing it with his shoe, and it tumbled down a few stairs.

"You know what I mean." Cody told, directing his attention to the left side of the stairs, to gaze at nothing in particular.

"Yeah." Zack sighed. "Somehow I understand you." He paused briefly, "Still haven't figured out _how _exactly. Because I don't consider the excuse, 'we're twins', legit. Never have."

Cody stole a glance towards him, before silence covered them both again. After a few moments of deep thinking, pulling out strands of grass, and scuffing his shoes, Cody finally looked back towards Zack. "I doubt she'll say anything about it. If that's what you're getting at."

"Well even if she did, her parents probably wouldn't believe her anyway." Zack huffed in response.

Cody frowned. It was sad, but true. The thought of Emily's idiotic parents irritated him.

"Unless she puts a hit out on you, I don't think we'll have a reason to be worried about this." Zack joked, tapping his shoes against the concrete. "There's no way for HQ to find out."

Now there was an interesting concept. What _if _Emily put a hit out on him? Cody knew that she wouldn't. And he knew that Zack had been joking when he'd said it. But it'd sure be crazy if she did. "You know…" Cody started, leaning over his knees and gazing at the stairs. "I've never really thought about this but…if we're in charge of making people pay for their screw ups…" he paused momentarily, but once he felt his brother's gaze on him he continued, "Whose in charge of making us pay for ours?"

Zack raised an eyebrow and fell silent. Hmm. He shook his head slightly. "Beats the fuck out of me."

Cody smiled faintly and glanced over at Zack. The look of puzzled confusion on his face was priceless. So this was it huh? He was actually going to go through with deceiving HQ. To him, it might have seemed like a tough decision at first. But it really actually wasn't. Zack didn't deserve to pay for his mistakes. Once he mentally put the argument to rest, he noticed his brother was still just sitting there. Kind of tilting back and forth slightly, gazing off into the distance. Seemingly, as wide-awake as he was. "So…if you don't mind me asking…" Cody paused, while Zack glanced in his direction, "Where exactly did Tina go?" He stuck out a thumb and pointed it over his shoulder back towards the hotel.

Zack frowned, a look of pure confusion swept over his face. "Who?"

"Um." Cody started, wondering how in the hell his brother managed to land so many girls in his bed when he was the world's most forgetful and absent-minded man alive. He could never picture his brother getting married. Or having a real girlfriend. And if he did he was going to have to work on this problem of his. "Your date?"

"Oh her." Zack replied casually, as if it was no big deal. He was used to it by now. While Cody remembered names, Zack was better at remembering breast sizes, curves, and the way they scream in bed. He glanced down and scuffed his shoe. "Besides, I wasn't really enjoying myself after you and I got into it."

Cody's jaw dropped slightly. _What_? Zack would enjoy sex even if a large flaming meteor were hurling towards the earth.

"Sorry I hit you." Zack mumbled, scoffing quietly afterwards. He hated apologizing. He really did. And even though he still felt like Cody deserved it in a way, he shouldn't have taken that matter into his own hands like that. It wasn't Zack's job to deal out punishments to his best friend and brother. Steer him in the right direction? Maybe. Going in the right direction wasn't exactly Zack's strong point, but he tried with Cody. He really, really did.

"I'm sorry that I didn't talk to you about...everything first." Cody mumbled back.

Both boys were facing out into the distance. It was moments like these that neither of them really did know what the other was feeling, but they were on the same level of understanding about one thing. And that was that they needed each other. More than anything else in the world. They needed to be able to lean on one another. To rely on one another. Sometimes they hated that feeling. But when the day was done. No matter how many arguments they'd get into sometimes, it was all they had. It was all they could grasp onto. When so many other people's lives were slipping away, they held onto each other's. Their relationship with each other was the most sacred thing they had.

After nearly five minutes of sitting there, Cody finally looked over at Zack again. "So…the eye?"

Zack turned to his brother, a smirk on his face, "Oh this?" he pointed up at himself. "Wiley did this."

Cody leaned away slightly, with a puzzled look on his face.

Zack continued to smile as his hand dropped back down into his lap, "Biker." He paused before adding, "_Really _nice guy."

Cody smirked towards him.

"You know I've always wondered just how well a fifteen year old can screw." Zack said, taking advantage of the fact that it was now his turn to ask a question. "I mean…did she even have real tits yet?"

Though they had only been away from each other for the day, they had a lot of catching up to do.

Cody frowned, "Are you _trying _to make me feel worse than I already do?"

"Uh, you do remember who you're speaking to? You might have met me once or twice?" Zack motioned towards himself. "I actually want to know, bro."

Cody huffed. "I don't really think I was paying attention to those kinds of details, Zack." he responded, scoffing as he did so. Though it shouldn't be surprising him at all that Zack was asking him about this.

"Oh come on. You _have _to remember. You were getting _laid _for Christ's sakes. How do you _not _pay attention to the girl's breasts?" Zack exclaimed, "Come on I've never had jailbait before, so, " he paused and nudged Cody's arm with his elbow, "Give me some details or something."

"Zack!" Cody snapped, glaring towards him. "Someone's sexual life _should _be private, even though you've obviously never bothered with keeping your mouth shut about your own." He paused, and glanced away, but only for a split second before turning on him again, "And you sound like a woman! Wanting details." He threw his arm up in the air.

Cody's glare, and lecturing tone only made Zack want to laugh, but he stifled it, and folded his arms, "You're such a stick in the mud." He winced, and un-folded his arms almost immediately. Damn it, he just kept forgetting to be careful with his hand.

Cody raised an eyebrow and looked down at Zack's still pretty swollen hand. Which was now turning a slight shade of purple with bruising. "What's wrong with it?"

Zack glanced at his hand briefly. "Uh." He faced his brother. "It's broken somewhere. I'm just not sure _exactly_ where."

Cody looked at Zack's hand again, before shifting closer to his brother, "Let me see it."

Zack hesitated at first, but extended his hand out towards Cody anyway. He held back the urge to cuss him out when he so roughly grabbed his hand in his grip. What followed this, only made him want to start punching him again. "OW!" before Zack had a chance to say anything else, there was a cracking noise, and the pain had taken his breath away. After a moment, he seethed out a, "That fucking _hurt_ like a _bitch_."

Cody flopped Zack's hand back into his own lap and shifted away from him slightly, "How's it feel now?"

Zack glared at his brother as he rubbed his hand gently. Instead of it hurting, it just felt sore. And the massaging actually felt good. "What the fuck did you do?"

Cody smirked. "Remember when we first got hired…we had that option to take the four day medical course?"

Zack rolled his eyes.

"You ultimately opted out of it, because you didn't think we would need to waste our time with it, but I took it anyway." Cody replied, "Because I just _knew _you were going to get yourself shot someday."

"Hey!" Zack argued, motioning to him self, "I have _never _gotten shot."

"The point is." Cody continued quickly, "I knew it would come in useful."

Zack glared down at his hand again. Unreal. It already even _looked _better.

"You're hand wasn't broken, but two of your fingers and your thumb were dislocated." Cody replied, facing forward again. Staring off into the distance. Again. "Well…" he added slowly. "There may be a hairline fracture somewhere, but that's something not even a doctor can cure, so."

Zack was still staring at his hand. He held it out in front of him. Shook it. Flopped it around a little. After a minute of this, he looked at Cody again. "Thanks."

Cody nodded silently.

"Ready for Vegas?" Zack asked, as he sighed, and this time, looked up towards the sky. It was a decently starry night.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Cody answered, as he looked upwards as well, and then turned to Zack. "You?"

Zack looked at his twin, surprised he should even have to ask at all. He let out a 'pfft' sound. "Fuck yeah." He glanced away again.

X

"Man! Cody!" Zack exclaimed as he slumped over onto a craps table. "Isn't Vegas great?"

"Zack." Cody murmured sternly, as he leaned onto Zack's shoulder, "You are _way _too drunk."

Zack pushed himself back off the edge of the table as he turned to glare towards his brother. "And you are way too boring." He replied as he pointed a shaky finger towards his brother. He spotted a waitress with a plate full of drinks and reached out drunkenly, snatching a glass off of it. Half of it sloshed out and onto the floor in his haste. "Here." He shoved it into Cody's hand, before turning back towards the table.

The crowd that had formed around the table cheered as they watched the kid who'd been rolling nothing but winning numbers so far, pick the dice back up in his hand. They didn't know how this guy was still standing, truthfully. He'd taken drink after drink, and was still managing to stay upright. Though, he had stumbled onto the table a couple of times.

Cody scowled, and sat the drink down on the edge of the table, "Damn it, Zack." He gripped his brother on the shoulder and turned him away from the table to look at him again. When he noticed the crowd's eyes were on him, he glanced around nervously, before lowering his voice and glaring towards his twin again, "We're supposed to be walking around getting a feel for this place. You haven't left this table since we got here."

Zack rolled his eyes. Despite being heavily intoxicated, he knew why they were there. He just wished Cody would relax a little about it. "That's not true. I had to go take a piss, remember?"

Cody blinked a few times, and decided he'd wasted enough time trying to pry Zack away from the table. He was obviously going to have to scope this place out on his own, so why wait any longer? He turned around and weaved his way through the remainder of the crowd surrounding his brother. This place was packed. And loud.

He scoffed to himself and glared over his shoulder as the crowd surrounding his brother cheered. Tomorrow was a big day for them. They were going to be stalking and executing a real big shot. Supposedly, Mr. Tipton was known worldwide for his successful chain of casinos. However, he was known by HQ for his successful underground chain of drug dealing, prostitution, and illegal operations. They'd been watching this man for years, just waiting for a chance to send someone in to blow him away. Why? Cody had no idea. He just knew that when HQ themselves wanted someone dead, you didn't question it. At all. Though, that wasn't going to stop Cody from thinking about it from time to time. Someone at headquarters had put this hit out themselves. He and his brother were going to be putting their lives on the line for someone they probably had never even spoken to. And what exactly did Mr. Tipton mean to the person who did put the hit out? Were they family of some kind? Old college buddies? It had to be personal. But just how personal?

Oh God. He was letting himself slip into a nightmare of a mind frame. He was _not _going to let himself do this. Not again, and not with this gig. He wished he'd have been born a little more similarly to Zack in this aspect. It's like his sibling was fortunate enough to be born with an 'on' and 'off' switch. So that he could just shut off his thought process. Be a real, genuine, killing machine.

He needed to find a way to relax.

Fuck it.

They were in Vegas. Maybe he should let himself enjoy it.

He wasn't going to get drunk. Zack already was, and there had to be at least one designated driver out of the pair of them.

He wasn't going to waste his money on slots either. Although they were appealing. The catchy tune while the reel spun. The flashing lights. The fruit shapes. The annoying dings when you hit some sort of reward.

But no. He wasn't one to gamble money. It was Zack's role to be irresponsible with the finances.

He could always go see the strippers. Women slowly taking off their clothing, dancing while doing so. Women that made most men's mouth's water.

Not his thing. He didn't want to go and watch female's lose their dignity – piece by piece of clothing. Again. More of Zack's thing.

How the heck could he let himself enjoy this place?

Maybe he'd just settle for getting some air.

Maybe if he thought about Emily it'd help him calm down.

He came to a stop and glanced around. This place was a damned maze. Too big for it's own good. He was sure he'd taken a wrong turn somewhere. He couldn't even see an exit sign. He really needed to just study the floor plan better. He still hadn't had a chance to _really _go over the case file yet. Because first it had been Zack wanting to have breakfast. Then the whole Emily thing. Then being up almost all night. Then the grand deception of _not _telling HQ, and _not _filing for a black out of Sioux City. His mind had been shot over that all day.

Masses of people brushed past him, rushing to claim their next slot machine. It was so noisy. He was surrounded by constant dinging and ringing in his ears, and quite frankly, for him, he could care less whether after this gig was over, if he and his brother ever came back. He turned to go the opposite way. He had to get the hell out of the middle of this chaos.

As soon as he turned around he was bombarded with white feathers to his face. He felt himself stumbling slightly as several bodies bumped and brushed past him in a seeming rush. And Jesus Christ. There were so many feathers.

He was sure he'd done about four or five twirls by the time he was able to regain his full balance again, and he whipped his head around to see what the hell all that had been about. His eyes caught sight of a small parade of women rushing away from him, half dressed, with what looked to be small angel wings attached to their backs.

He huffed to himself, before turning again to get the heck out of there before he was run over by more angels.

Too late.

He let out an 'oomph', as something connected with his chest. Damn it all. He should sue. And he most definitely was not in the mood for this. He was just trying to find an exit.

"Son of a bitch." Cursed a female voice, as she regained her balance and smoothed out her extremely small, Cody noted, black shorts. In fact, Cody wasn't sure they were shorts at all. They might have actually been this girl's underwear.

When she whipped her head up to glare towards him, she fell silent. He was rather handsome. She was used to running into dirty old men, but running into an actual nice looking man for once? If only that could happen more often. Maybe she shouldn't hold this against him. Maybe she should thank him for the fact that he hadn't called her a 'pet' name yet, or grabbed her ass and demanded her to meet him in the bathroom in five.

Once Cody had caught a glimpse of this girl's face, he couldn't manage to tear his eyes away. She was in fact, possibly, one of the most breathtaking female's he'd ever laid his eyes on. Her attire wasn't breathtaking. She didn't look a day over sixteen and she was running around a casino in no more than a sad excuse for short-shorts. A bra. And a pair of black angel wings.

Her face was exotic. Asian. Her skin looked flawless; a dark, tanned, mocha.

Cody mentally slapped himself. What was it with him and these younger girls? Well. He couldn't exactly say this girl was jailbait, because he didn't exactly know her age. But he knew one thing for sure, and that was he could not exactly call her a woman either. This was a girl. That part, he knew for sure.

He needed to stop giving her the once over, is what he needed to stop doing. When his eyes met her face again, she appeared to be faintly smiling. She was obviously used to this. Being gaped at.

But Cody was not used to viewing females as trophies, conquests, or pieces of meat. So he was feeling quite ashamed at the moment.

He wanted to be like Zack. But he only wanted Zack's ability to not think so much about one thing in particular. He didn't want all of the things that made Zack a blatant asshole.

"Shit." The girl cursed, as she glanced over her shoulder. Her set of wings were slumping on one particular side. She reached over her shoulder to try and get a hold of them. When she couldn't do this, the situation became quite amusing for Cody.

He was watching this _girl_ twirl in circles, over, and over, and over again. You'd figure she would have found out by now that she wasn't going to be able to reach the wings. But she kept trying anyway.

Cody caught himself smirking slightly. He'd heard a rumor once that stripper's had no brains. But he'd always called it a rumor because at the time he'd figured it was bullshit for people to pass such a judgment. He didn't want to pass that kind of judgment himself, but this girl was not doing very well at convincing him to remain in a neutral opinion of the matter. She was going to get sick if she didn't stop spinning like this.

"Hey." He reached out and took her by the arm, gently, but firm enough to where he could stop her. She immediately began to stumble backwards, her balance incredibly unstable due to the fact that she had subjected herself to such dizziness. He kept a hold of her arm though, so instead of her falling backwards, she fell into his chest.

He felt awkward. He really needed to get some air. He was going to have to tear himself away from the dark angel. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into a standing position. He glanced into her dizzy eyes. "How many fingers am I holding up?" he shot three fingers up on his left hand.

The girl looked at them and squinted her eyes. "Uhhhh."

Cody drew back slightly, waiting for a reply despite the fact that he really didn't want to. He watched as she lifted her own hand and counted each of his fingers. "One…two…three?"

Cody raised an eyebrow, and gave her a reluctant gaze. "You don't seem so sure…"

"Rats!" The girl exclaimed, stamping her foot slightly. "Knew I should have gone with six."

"Right…" Cody replied, before patting her shoulder, "Look I need to go." He released her, and glanced around, "Sorry I ran into you." He mumbled, as he quickly adjusted her 'wings' for her, before turning on his heel, and flat booking it away from her.

Though he felt her gaze stay with him until he was sure she couldn't see him anymore.

He couldn't get caught up with another girl right now. Especially ones like her. It felt like Emily all over again. He'd turned something beautiful into a disaster, and he wasn't going to let himself do it again.

X

Zack was pretty sure he had alcohol poisoning. How he hadn't managed to puke so far? He didn't know. But what he did know was that he was getting ready to cash out some major winnings. That is, if he could keep a hold of his chips.

They kept spilling out of his arms, and he wondered why the hell they hadn't given him a carrier for all of these. He was basically giving people free money by letting the chips slide out of his arms and into the floor. He didn't dare try and bend down to pick any of them up. He was too drunk, and too lazy.

He made his way towards the cash out center, stumbling into people left and right, listening to the sounds of the jackpots going off in the distance, and also listening to his chips continuing to hit the floor.

He wobbled up to the counter, a drunken smirk plastered on his face, as he lifted his arms and released the mound of chips onto it. There was no organization to this, and he frowned when he watched yet more of his chips spill off the sides of the counter and onto the floor.

The lady on the other side glared at him. It was dip shits like this that made her job hard, and her nights long. "How would you like these cashed, sir." She stated more so than asked.

"Don't care." He replied slurrishly, leaning onto the counter for support.

The woman mumbled something under her breath as she began to work on Zack's earnings.  
He on the other hand, was scanning the part of the casino he could see from there, wondering if he could spot Cody. Despite his drunken state, he knew he had irritated him earlier, and so when he sobered up a little he felt like he'd hear Cody out about tomorrow's gig.

Over a beer. Or two.

"Well you sure do get around, don't you?"

Zack's attention and gaze shifted to the left, where his eyes landed on a small-framed female with what looked like black wings attached to her back. His eyebrows rose up. "Huh?" What had she meant by that? I mean, it's quite possible he met her earlier at the craps table, but he didn't recall it. And if he did, why the hell were they standing there and not in a hotel room somewhere? In bed? Together?

The girl was slightly confused. She'd just run into this guy a mere half hour ago, and he had managed to find a bar and get himself wasted enough that he didn't remember her. Not to mention win big at one of the tables. It also looked as if he'd gotten into a bar fight. One of his eyes looked faintly blackened. But that was all right. She'd seen it all here. Maybe they should start over anyway. Considering they hadn't exactly met in a way she'd want to remember either.

Still, she noted there was something different about the way his eyes were looking at her this time. Oh well. Alcohol had that effect on some people. She extended a hand towards him. "They call me Lady Luck."

Zack continued to lean on the counter for support, but extended his hand and took hers. "Lady Luck?" he questioned, as he looked her over again, and almost laughed because he wondered what glorious act he could have committed in his past life, to be rewarded with a stripper as luscious as this one looked, to grace him with her presence. I mean, sure, women were constantly approaching him, but not a genuine stripper, from Vegas itself. "And…you're a dancer?"

She glanced down at herself. "Not technically." A smirk played on her lips as she looked back up at the boy, "I'm filling in tonight." She paused, noting that the boy still had his eyes glued to her body, as opposed to her face. "I usually work the card tables."

Zack raised an eyebrow at this, "You have a job that keeps your body covered?" Why? Why would anyone suggest her for a job that required her to keep her clothes on?

She laughed lightly, ignoring the gaze she was receiving from the lady behind the counter. "Tell you what." She paused, leaning closer to him, until she was so close to his ear that her hot breath was bouncing off of it and hitting her in the face. "Meet me at the Black Jack table in thirty minutes and I'll deal you a straight up."

Zack was there in fifteen.

He'd stopped by the snack bar to quickly woof down a bag of chips, and they were already soaking up the liquor in his system. In fact, he considered it a freakish super power of his. He could get so wasted, so fast, and then he could turn around and get himself sober, even faster. Cody had told him once that it was a blessing in disguise.

The exotic young girl he'd met at the cash out counter? He needed to be in his right mind for his next encounter with her. Because when she'd walked away from him, he'd gotten the chills down his spine, and no one, _no one_, had ever given him the chills like that before. He wasn't sure if it was the alcohol that had done it or not. But he was going to find out.

X

"You what?" Cody asked for the second time, in a tone that was slightly panicked.

He couldn't believe this was happening. His hands were beginning to sweat. He switched his cell phone from his right ear to his left and shook his sweaty hand for a moment as he spun on his heel, away from the railing of an outside patio area.

"You said it was tomorrow-" he began, but was cut off by HQ, who was on the other side. He took a deep breath, and clenched his eyes shut stressfully. "We are not prepared for this."

"Someone else for the job then?" came the response.

Cody halted his argument at the question. Someone else?

Well. It would certainly be more plausible. He hadn't studied any floor plans. He hadn't read up on the file enough. He didn't have enough information. He felt like a fish out of water inside the casino, and there was no way he could carry out an execution successfully, if he felt this uncomfortable.

"Well?" he was prompted with another question.

No. Not only would Zack kill him, but they'd also be throwing away the biggest gig they'd ever been given the honor of taking on. A frown came to his face, and he couldn't help but glare as he stared off across the road. He watched endless streams of fancy and overpriced cars, meshed in with a load of taxis, swerve and skid to halts at the restaurant across the street, and although it was still noisy outside, it was much better than the inside. His eyes glanced towards a few bystanders, but they weren't paying attention. Never the less, he lowered his tone. "We'll still do it." He immediately regretted saying it. But he was torn, and being forced to decide.

He hung up the phone and slung his head back. Why God? Why? His hands gripped the metal railing in a frustrated manner, before he inhaled deeply and shook his head slightly. Well. The good thing was that Zack wouldn't be mad at him for giving away their gig.

The bad things were that they were completely unprepared, he had no idea where to find Zack, and they had less than an hour before their target was going to show up. Not to mention, they only had a small window of time to do it in. Yeah. Somebody was going to get shot tonight. He just hoped it wasn't him or his brother.

He plowed through the crowds of people, once again submersed in the noisy atmosphere of the casino as he headed towards the tables, the place he had last seen his brother. Sure, it had been an hour since, but Zack was drunk, and winning, and he'd shown no signs whatsoever of leaving those tables. He was either still there, or hadn't strayed too far.

Cody's eyes scanned the area in an alert manner, and he was already once again, growing quite tired of being bumped roughly on the shoulders. But there was really nothing he could do about it.

He finally reached the Craps table. Zack wasn't there. The fuck.

Did someone have a personal vendetta on him? What the hell was going on with this night? He was two seconds away from screaming in frustration over the situation at hand entirely. He ran a hand through his hair as he spun around slowly, eyes still scanning the surrounding tables. When he heard applause coming from somewhere to his left, he made a beeline in that direction. He just knew Zack was once again in the middle of that crowd. Seemed he was everyone's favorite tonight. He firmly moved some people out of his way, and the Black Jack table came into view.

Not only was Zack there. But so was the dark angel.

Cody tried to stay focused and not let him self get caught up in the exotic girl who seemed to be dealing Zack's hand to him. He reached out and grasped his sibling by the shoulder.

Zack whipped his head around slightly, "Hey! Brother!"

Cody noted that he was speaking a little more clearly than earlier, which was nice. At least maybe now he'd be able to have a decent conversation with him, "I have to talk to you, its urgent."

Zack frowned, as he made eye contact with his twin. His gaze drifted towards Lady Luck for a split second, before shooting back towards Cody, and he leaned into him a bit, "Dude. Not now…" he tilted his head slightly in the girl's direction, "Do you see that babe? She's been dealing me perfect hands for ten minutes now, and if I stick around long enough, I think I can get her to leave with me once her shift is over with…Do you have any idea how sweet that would be? And also…"

Cody zoned out momentarily. He had seen that babe all right. In fact, he was fighting not to look at her, because he could feel her gaze on him, and he knew that if he were to make eye contact with the black-winged beauty, he might not _stop_ looking at her. Something about this girl was captivating. He'd never felt compelled to just simply gaze at a female like this before. It was lustful thinking, and he definitely wasn't used to it. He shook his head slightly, and cut his brother off in the middle of his rambling, "Zack, this is serious, we've got a problem."

Zack drew back slightly. Cody did look a little flushed and fidgety. Of course, Cody looked this way over things like not being able to find filtered bottled water, or misplacing his toothbrush. What the hell had happened now? "What?"

Cody swallowed hard, and finally turned to look at the girl, who had perched herself on the side of the table and seemed to be trying to listen to what they were saying. It just figured Zack would end up finding her too. He smiled nervously and uncomfortably at her.

She looked curious, her eyes had a slight tinge of confusion painted over them. She was probably trying to figure out just how in the hell there was two of the same person standing in front of her. And after her display earlier, Cody figured she'd probably never put it together that they were twins. Oh well. There were more urgent matters at hand. "Could you excuse us…?"

Zack whipped his head around to face Cody, looking as if he was going to try and protest. Cody ripped Zack's cards out of his hand, which made him glare all the more furiously. But before he could say anything, Cody belted out a, "This is about work." And he knew that no more could really be said out in the open like this. It was too risky. He watched Cody start to weave out of the crowd, and he took one last glance at Lady Luck. Oh he'd be back for her. That was for sure. He held a finger in the air, signaling that he'd return, leaving her to gaze after the two of them.

Zack followed his brother through the crowded casino. Damn it. This had better be urgent, because if Cody had torn him away from Lady Luck over something stupid, he was going to end up punching him again.

When they entered the bathroom, they waited patiently for the one occupant that was inside to leave.

The occupant eyed the two of them nervously. One of them was glaring towards him. The other seemed to be slightly nervous as he tapped his foot impatiently and wrung his hands together. He shook his remaining drizzle out and zipped his pants up, wondering if he should even bother washing his hands. When he approached the sink cautiously, the one who was glaring snapped at him.

"Oh come on you fucking dingus, just use sanitizer or something!" Zack snapped, grabbing the man by the back of the shirt and rushing him out the door before he could reply. He slammed the door shut behind the man and locked it, before turning towards Cody, who now had a semi-horrified expression on his face. "Alright. What?"

"I can't believe you didn't let him wash his hands, do you have any idea the amount of germs that-" Cody began rambling.

"What the fuck did you drag me away fromLady Luck for?" Zack interrupted, causing Cody to stop his attempt at a lecture.

"Lady Luck?" Cody responded curiously.

Zack rolled his eyes. He hated it when his brother beat around the bush. He had dragged him away from the table, insisting what he had to say was urgent, and now he was taking his sweet slow time with the conversation. "The girl at the table." Zack muttered out, annoyed, as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, "Get on with the fucking conversation already!"

"Alright." Cody began, as he walked over to the counter and placed his hands on it. He glanced up and gazed at Zack in the mirror's reflection, "I just got off the phone with HQ."

"HQ called you?" Zack questioned, a puzzled look on his face as he folded his arms. HQ never called Cody.

"They said they couldn't get a hold of you." Cody murmured, and watched a confused Zack reach down towards his pocket. He closed his eyes and sighed, "But that's not important now." He paused.

Zack pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced at it. 2 missed calls.

"What's important is that they called, and everything has changed." Cody continued, glancing at Zack again through the mirror. He watched his brother pocket his phone again and turn his attention back towards him. "Mr. Tipton is on his way here. Now."

"What?" Zack belted out immediately, surprised, as his arms flung apart.

At this point the door to the bathroom thudded lightly. This was followed by knocking.

"Occupied!" Zack snapped, before focusing back towards Cody again, "What do you mean he's on his way now?"

Cody spun around, "He's going to be here in…" he paused and glanced at his watch, "Less than half an hour, and he's only going to be here _for_ an hour."

"How the fuck did this happen?" Zack threw his arms in the air angrily. Nothing good could come from this.

"I don't know." Cody replied, "But this isn't good Zack, we don't even know how we're going to do this, or where he's going to be, or how many people he's going to have with him, or-"

"Alright alright alright." Zack replied, holding up a hand to halt his brother from speaking anymore. He closed his eyes and let his head settle in his hand for a brief moment. He had a bit of a headache, but rest assured, any buzz he'd had at all from the alcohol he'd consumed earlier, was sure as hell gone now.

An abrupt pounding sounded on the other side of the bathroom door again, and Zack, at this point, was so irritated, that he mumbled an annoyed 'God damn it,' stormed over to the door, unlocked it, and flung it open. Cody watched in horror, as Zack reached out of the door, and when he pulled his arm back inside, he had a man by the collar, in his grip. "Didn't I just fucking say it was occupied in here?"

The man, who looked to be in slight shock at the anger the young boy was dishing towards him, stuttered slightly, "I-I'm not trying to interrupt, I, I just-"

"There are other fucking bathrooms!" Zack snapped, and pulled the man closer, "If you knock on this door one more time, I will break every fucking finger you have! Got it?"

The man nodded nervously. Zack tossed him back out the door and slammed it shut behind him, once again, locking it. A few seconds of silence passed, before he raised his head again to look at his brother, who was glaring at him with caution. "What? It was annoying!"

Cody scoffed, and held out an arm, "Yeah, well you know what would even be more annoying, is security coming in here and causing a scene, because you threw someone out of a public restroom."

Zack rolled his eyes at his brother, and chose not to reply. They didn't really have time right now to argue over the issue of him being annoyed. He quickly dismissed the thoughts of the situation, and focused on the real pressing issue at hand. "…This guy has to have an office or something, right?" he asked expectantly.

Cody raised an eyebrow, "Who? Mr. Tipton?"

"Uh…" Zack paused momentarily, a slightly sheepish look on his face as his eyes darted slightly to the left, then back on Cody again. "Sure." Before Cody could say anything about his horrible memory – concerning people's names in particular, he continued, "I mean, you read the file, right?"

Cody deadpanned a glare at him. "_When_ did you see me get a _chance_ to read that file?" he snapped, and before Zack could say anything at all, he continued, now fired up at the situation completely, "I've been wanting to since yesterday, but of course, _everything _got in the way of that. I don't know _anything_ about this place except that it is too loud, too big, and has a million different entry's!" He flung his arms around dramatically, "From what I understand this is a man of great power, and he's probably got more security than Air Force One, so you're usual option of all guns blazing definitely won't work, and-"

"Oh contraire." Zack replied, finally cutting off his brother, who at any point he was certain was going to burst a blood vessel. Cody could see the wheels in Zack's head turning. Although he wasn't certain just how many wheels Zack had up there. Maybe just a single.

Zack held a finger out and bobbed it up and down, "It's probably going to be the _only _option that works, considering we got fucking bombed with this."

Cody frowned, and folded his arms across his chest, nervous. This wasn't sitting well with him. He had a horrible feeling about this entire thing now. "I should have just let HQ pass it to someone else…" he mumbled.

Zack glared towards him pointedly, "I would have kicked your ass."

"I know." Cody replied, aiming a glare at him as well. "But the pain might have been better to handle than this pressure." He paused before adding, "_And_ this ignorant, suicidal, and completely irrational idea of yours."

Zack rolled his eyes, and responded with an irritated tone. "Whatever. I'm going to the hotel to get our fire power." He paused, and tried to put on a somewhat calm expression, because tonight, he was going to have to be Cody's strength considering there was no organization to this gig anymore. "Wait for me."

Cody sighed, as he watched his brother head towards the door and unlock it. He paused though, and turned back towards him, "You _do_ know what this guy looks like, right?"

Cody's eyes popped a little in disbelief, "Of course I do, I at least took the time to look at his photo, don't tell me you-" he stopped, completely frustrated at this point. Zack hadn't even taken the time to so much as glance at the file. He didn't even know what their target looked like. Cody was mentally kicking himself for not making time to go over it, but at least he'd skimmed it. Though at this point, it shouldn't be surprising him that Zack hadn't even laid a finger on it. They were so screwed.

"Hey." Zack started, knowing exactly why Cody had stopped himself from talking any further, one hand gripping the door handle, while his other arm lifted into the air slightly, "I'm just going to assume any of them are who we're after. But it's good that you _really _know."

With that, he left in a hurry, leaving Cody to stand in the bathroom, rather annoyed, yet again, with his brother. It was like a never-ending cycle. He loved his brother to death, but good God didn't he realize the predicament they were in?

He sighed, glaring at himself in the mirror. Fine. Zack wanted to go in all guns blazing, then whatever. Cody was game. At least he was going to try to be game. There was nothing else he could do at this point. No time to be tactical. No time to come up with a plan. They hadn't done an ammo or weapons preparation. They hadn't done _near _enough to get them ready for this moment. They were just going to have to do whatever they could to keep themselves alive.

They were good at that.

And considering how unstructured they were sometimes, it was shocking.

But they'd trained for situations like this too. Though Cody didn't handle well, he was still quite capable of being deadly. And he wasn't going to let Zack down. Not so soon after telling him that he was going to get his shit together. Him slipping up this time and not reading over the file was no excuse. He was just going to aim his gun and shoot at the people who tried to stand in their way.

He really didn't know what was wrong with him anymore. It couldn't just be the aftermath; he'd been screwing up all month. Letting things and people distract him. Being deceptive and lying to HQ, the people who employed them and trusted them with gigs as big as the one they were about to complete, had definitely taken a toll on him today.

But he _had _agreed to it.

He turned around and glared at him self in the mirror, knowing one thing was for sure. He simply couldn't do this anymore. After tonight he was going to have to do something, anything, to either get himself back on track…or maybe…it was really time for him to quit killing.

Quit killing? ... The thought was mentally upsetting. He'd just been feeling better about himself. He'd become a hero...right? That feeling that Emily had given him...

It almost didn't matter anymore. He'd destroyed that innocent inspiration she'd given him. It'd been replaced with guilt and shame when he'd slept with her.

He wished he could take it all back. Just have that feeling again.

A sigh escaped him, as he turned and headed towards the bathroom door. He needed to start watching out for Mr. Tipton. But there were so many entrances. So many different ways he could come in. He may not even come in an entrance at all; what if there was some kind of back way in? A door that was unknown and unheard of, specifically designed for this purpose. To avoid anyone getting to him. This guy obviously knew he needed protection. Doing the type of business that he did, he was sure to have more enemies than friends.

He took a deep breath. He just needed to focus. Use his brain. He was good at doing it, so why give up on what God gave him now?

He needed to be a step ahead. He just didn't want to get too close to Mr. Tipton unarmed. For now he had to play it safe.

And speaking of which, he managed to stop himself before touching the door handle. He glared towards it with a look of disgust. First a man who hadn't washed his hands, thanks to Zack, had touched it. _Then _Zack himself had touched it. Cody shuddered at the thought, and reached over, grabbing a few paper towels out of the dispenser. It'd have to do.

He gripped the door handle, the paper towels providing him protection from the germs that were surely on it. Before he knew it, there was a blur of movement, and his arms were filled with a warm body. The body had plunged itself into his arms so quickly, that it took all of his strength to stay upright and not plummet to the floor. One of his arms wrapped itself around the figure, while the other instinctively extended behind him to get some leverage on the wall. His lips were seized.

He was still in shock by all of this, but he managed to grasp the figure by the shoulders and push whoever it was off of him, even though he felt like his lips were being partially ripped off when the kiss was broken.

He knew he'd caught a glimpse of black feathers.

It was _her_.

* * *

**AN : I know it was quite long and lengthy! Hope you guys liked it. Please let me know what you think! Also! Brief Q&A! First...how do you think the boys are going to handle this gig now that it's fallen to shambles? And two...Cody's been struggling all month mentally, and it seems everytime he starts feeling any kind of decent about things, something else happens to destroy his positive mind frame...do you think he should stop killing? **


	4. Game Face

**AN : It has been sooooo long everyone! I have been around the last several days, and added a couple updates to Through His Eyes, which is a completely different concept than this story here, but I'm not going to lie, this one is my baby. I love writing the boys like this, and I love writing London like this. I have so many great ideas for this story still, so I really hope that everyone will jump back on the ride with me here. I apologize of course, for it having been so long since my last installment. As I stated when posting for Through His Eyes, life really has been in the way, and really unpermitting as far as creative writing goes... so I had to set my stories on the back-burner for so long. But I never stopped thinking about any of my fics, and I'm taking advantage of the time I have now to update them as much as I can, when I can. I appreciate all the feedback this story has received so far, and hope that everyone can enjoy this addition, as much as you've enjoyed the previous ones. Also - Bailey will most definitely be in this story. It's just not time for her entrance yet. : ) So, without further ado...**

_Disclaimer : I do not own The Suite Life On Deck or any of the characters associated._

* * *

Attached At The Hit

Part Four - Game Face

**X**

She looked up at him, a smile playing on her lips. "I thought you said you were coming back to my table."

Cody blinked a few times, trying to catch his breath. He was a mixture of shock, warmth, and nervous-ness all at once. He really didn't have time for this. Although part of him wished he did. "Uh…" he paused for a second. He hadn't told her he was going back, that would be his brother. But he didn't have time to explain that to her either. "Yeah sorry. Change of plans." He remarked quickly, before trying to squeeze past her gently.

Lady Luck stopped him by moving in front of him, and once again, their bodies were meshed together. "What's your hurry?" she asked, placing a hand on his chest lightly, her eyes exploring his body. "I've never given any man a reason to run away from me before…" her head moved towards his again.

He grabbed her by the wrist and forced her back yet again, "I believe you. Trust me. But I don't have time for this." He told her, his eyes bearing into hers strictly.

She frowned, and twisted her wrist out of his hand gently, and Cody could have sworn the look in her eyes seemed hurt. He immediately felt bad as he watched her shoot her gaze towards the floor, "Look…you're a…" he glanced her over, but felt guilty for it. His hand shot out and moved up and down, "I'm sure you're a nice girl, but I have somewhere I need to be." He paused, before adding, "It's not perso-eep-"

Cody squeaked softly and his voice shot off into the distance when he felt Lady Luck's hand land on top of his manhood. No no no! This could not be happening right now.

"Fine…" she replied, her hand pressing harder into his pants, a serious look on her face.

Cody leaned against the wall, trying to keep from trembling, but Lady Luck pressed herself against him again, her angel wings bobbing on her back as her face once more got close to his.

"Give me just one minute, and if you still want to reject me, I'll back off." She said in a fainter, quieter, and a lot more seductive tone, "But I promise you, you won't." her hand began to rub. Cody did his best to breathe under the pressure. Lady Luck's eyes glanced around the bathroom. "Hey, where'd your other self go?" she questioned, looking back towards him, "There's plenty of me to go around you know." She leaned up closer to his face and whispered in his ear, "I can be shared…"

Cody felt frantic. He was literally about to come out of his skin. Yes, part of it was because she was doing a damn good job of giving him a hard on. But the other part was because of his current time-crunch, work crisis situation. Then there was another part that was completely appalled by her insistence. She was just a _girl_. Didn't she have any self-control? Any idea that doing this to a man could get her more than she bargained for? If she did this to the _wrong _man with just the right, sick kind of mind, it could get her into trouble. Did she even care?

Cody was irritated now. It was just what he'd needed. He seized her hand, and before she knew it, he'd switched their positions. He had her firmly pressed against the wall, his hands holding both of her arms so that she couldn't make another grab at him. She looked almost scared. Good. That was what he was going for. He wanted her to take him seriously. Obviously being nice to her hadn't worked out. He leaned in, his face mere inches away from hers, a strict glare in his eyes, "Does your father know that you talk this way?" he paused, but only quickly, "That you parade around in this place with barely anything on?" he glanced her up and down, but with a frown on his face. "That you probably become someone's play toy every single night?"

Lady Luck's eyes darted over his face, searching it for any signs of arousal, any signs that this guy might be just joking around with her, but they remained the same, so she leaned her face into his as much as she could, and replied as seriously as she figured he might expect her to. "My father made me what I am." She paused, and watched to see if his gaze towards her would change at all, "He gave me this job." She told, "And he gave me the freedom to do what I want, and _fuck_ who I want," she paused again, and Cody could sense she was slightly irritated with him. Like he'd hit a nerve in her somewhere. Like he was forcing her to face the reality that her father sounded like a real scum bucket. But he hadn't meant to. He just wanted her to number one, back the heck off of him so he could get on with his work. And two, maybe give a slight damn about her self. He really didn't have time for any of this at all, but she really hadn't left him with much of a choice.

If it _was_ true what she was saying, then her dad _was _in fact a scum bucket. What father would let their daughter work in a casino like this? Wear clothes like this? What about her mother? Cody snapped himself out of his thoughts and scoffed. He had to go. He reluctantly released her arms, and without another word, spun on his heel and left the bathroom. He had to walk away from the situation completely. It just pissed him off. Not at her. At her father. If she were lucky, maybe someday, someone would put a hit out on him. He was the type of person who deserved to be hunted down and shot for not appreciating his own daughter, or teaching her to appreciate herself. Of course, Cody didn't know the circumstances, nor did he really have time to think anymore about them.

Maybe Mr. Tipton showing up suddenly was a blessing in disguise. Since he'd arrived in Vegas, except for the first hour or so, he'd been miserable. Now they'd be able to get this gig over with, and get the fuck out of this place.

**X**

Zack slid the card key into the hotel room door slot, and as soon as the green light came on, he flung the door open. So hard, in fact, that the doorknob crashed into the wall, leaving a small hole. Zack eyed the damage. Great. Just one more thing Cody would bitch at him for later. He reached he and his brother's beds in a few long strides and extended both his arms out in opposite directions. Once he'd grabbed a hold of the duffel bags underneath each of them, he pulled them out, and plopped them both on top of his bed.

He had to be quick. He was three blocks away now, and had left his brother to basically fend for himself. Without any firepower. The good thing about Cody though, was that he wouldn't rush into anything without thinking it through first. So when he'd left him, he hadn't been _too _concerned. He'd be alive still when he got back.

He dumped the duffle bags out. Ammo and gun clips clinked together and tumbled across the comforter. Stray bullets toppled onto the floor. Zack made quick work of getting the guns loaded and ready. He tucked Cody's magnum's next to his twin .45's, stuffed as many ready-and-loaded clips into his pockets and shoes as he could, then cleaned up the duffle bag mess.

As he headed towards the doorway, he stopped for a moment, and sighed. A few thoughts shot through his mind, and he turned and walked over towards the beds again. He lifted the mattress of Cody's bed up, and pulled out the file for the gig.

He felt extremely pressed for time. He needed to get back to Cody. But he also owed it to his brother to at least look at Mr. Tipton's picture. He sighed as he shuffled through the documents.

He so wasn't ready to leave Vegas yet.

**X**

"Come on Zack, come on…" Cody mumbled to himself as he glanced at his watch. Mr. Tipton was going to be arriving any time now, and Zack still hadn't come back. He bobbed nervously on his feet from where he was leaned against the wall, and he tucked his watch arm back into his other one, where they regained a folded position. His eyes scanned the casino. Nobody was really acting out of sorts right now. Of course, this place was so big, there was only a small percentage that Cody would see anything at all, no matter how closely he was watching.

It was no good just standing here. He needed to move. He was going to have to _search _for the target, because there was no way Mr. Tipton was just going to fall into his hands.

"Damn." Cody murmured, and he ducked behind a plant.

The dark angel was coming. He could _not_ risk having another run in with her right now. Though she didn't seem to be looking for him, she appeared to be talking on her cell phone. Cody eyed her through the plant, carefully of course, as he watched her head in his general direction. He closed his eyes. 'Please don't see me, please don't see me…' he said to himself, and he held in his breath and crossed his fingers. She got close enough that he caught a whiff of her perfume, but she breezed directly past him.

"No daddy, I didn't do anything with your lock box." her voice grew fainter as she trailed further away. "I thought you weren't coming until…"

She was taking quick steps, and Cody's gaze followed her until she disappeared into the crowd again. He stepped out from behind the plant. Something had felt strange about that entire situation, and Cody was feeling extremely compelled to follow her.

No. He couldn't give up keeping an eye out for Mr. Tipton, to follow the girl he'd just avoided like the plague. And he didn't quite know why he was feeling like following her to begin with. Was it because he simply wanted to know where she was going in such a hurry? Was it because the look on her face had seemed distressed? Was she in some kind of trouble with her 'daddy'? Of course, 'daddy' didn't necessarily mean her father. It could be the nickname she was using towards the man she might be getting ready to crawl into bed with for that night.

He thumped himself on the forehead a couple of times with the palm of his hand. 'Focus Cody God-damn it!' he mentally screamed at himself. He shook his head slightly, blinked a few times. God. Why did this place have to be so damned noisy?

What if she was in real trouble? It's not like it should matter to him. He was there to work, not save a damsel in distress. He didn't even know her. It was like the Emily thing all over again. Zack would kill him if he lost his focus on a gig this important. Did he really want to go down that same road again already? Screwing everything up because of a girl?

She was getting further and further away, he could feel it.

"Fuck me…" he mumbled, as he headed after her quickly.

It didn't take him long to catch up. Of course, he kept a safe distance. He didn't want her to know he was following her. And if she by chance figured it out, she'd probably wonder if he was smoking something, after he had just rejected her. He watched her black wings thwapping people as she moved past them.

She rounded a corner deep into the room. Just where would following her end up taking him? He cleared his throat as he glanced around again. He felt slightly paranoid at this point. What if Zack and him had already missed their chances of off-ing Mr. Tipton?

No. Impossible. He glanced at his watch. God. Where was his brother anyway?

**X**

"TAXI!" Zack screamed, his hand in the air as he stood at the side of the road in front of the hotel.

He'd just finished skimming through their case file, but he was worried that even though he'd hurried, he had still wasted too much time. Hey, at least he knew what Mr. Tipton looked like now. Quite a smug looking son of a bitch if Zack had ever seen one.

A taxi zoomed by, paying no heed to Zack at all. As if he were invincible. Zack clenched his fist angrily. He was half tempted to pull out one of his guns and force a taxi to stop for him. But that would just ruin everything. He sighed. No time.

"Fuck this shit…" he mumbled to himself, before taking off, out into the busy road, paying no heed to traffic at all.

Hey. He was the pedestrian. Cars weren't going to just plow him over. He ignored the blaring of several car horns as he ran as fast as his feet could carry him. He was pretty sure someone had called him a name, and normally, Zack would _not _under any circumstances let someone get away with that.

But he'd make an exception this one time.

This gig was on the line.

It took him a little over five minutes to get back to the casino, but…something was up. The main entrance seemed to be over packed with people. He crossed the street cautiously. After several attempts at trying to make out what people were saying, and trying to steal peeks through the crowd unsuccessfully, he sighed, frustrated. He needed to get inside there. And he needed to get inside _now_.

"Excuse me." He tapped on a man who was standing in front of him, a lovely looking woman on his arm.

When the man turned around to face him, he shot him a questioning gaze, waiting to hear what the boy had to say. The woman eyed him curiously.

"Do you have any idea what the hold up here is?" Zack asked impatiently, but as politely as he could, as he pointed a finger in the direction of the back of the crowd of people.

The man frowned at him, and replied short. "How should I know?"

Zack blinked a few times, and glanced at the woman on the man's arm. She was looking at the ground timidly. She seemed almost afraid to be standing with him. The way she was holding onto his arm was uncomfortable, but at the same time secure. Her face showed signs of slight fear, and it was bombarded with an over use of makeup.

Poor girl. Zack scoffed to himself. This world was too overrun with assholes.

The crowd roared, and finally the front door for the casino opened up, and a short woman emerged, wearing a staff uniform. "Everyone, everyone please! Quiet down." She tried, and the crowd seemed to silence a bit as all eyes turned towards her. "We just have a minor delay, we will permit you all inside in just a few moments!…" the staff lady continued, her voice rising with the crowd's.

Zack was still trying to glance over shoulders. Why was there a delay in letting people get inside? He took a few steps to the left, trying to get a better view. No such luck. He settled for backing up quite a bit. He ended up having to walk back across the street, but once he was able to get some kind of view, his focus landed on a group of several gruff looking men standing just inside the entrance, in the lobby, which was vacant except for them. They seemed impatient. A couple of them were pacing the floor. One was glancing at his watch. One was on his cell. Mr. Tipton's crew? Perhaps? He wasn't close enough to make out facial features or anything. So there was no way he could figure out if Mr. Tipton was actually standing there with them. A couple security men came into the lobby, and the group of men all turned towards them.

Okay. Now Zack _really _had to get inside. He raced across the street, again. He needed to get to Cody, but how?

Well. He wasn't good at thinking of smart or clever solutions to problems.

So. He'd have to settle it the way he always did.

He'd have to do something crazy. Something risky. A smirk brushed over his face.

He eyed the man and woman from a few minutes ago. Here went nothing.

He reached up and tapped the man's shoulder again.

The man spun around, and when he noticed it was Zack again, he scowled, an annoyed look on his face. Before he could say anything, Zack shot the two of them a smile, and piped in with a question. "So…" he paused, and pointed a finger back and forth between them. "You two are married?"

The woman pressed her lips together almost so hard that Zack couldn't see she had lips at all anymore, and the man huffed towards him, "Like it is any of your concern."

Zack raised an eyebrow towards the man, as he spun back around, slinging the woman back around with him. What a douche.

Zack took a step forward, and crept close behind the woman. He leaned in, and whispered in her ear, "Let me ask you something." He placed a hand gently on the small of her back.

The woman squeaked faintly, having been startled. The man she was clinging to, at this point, was extremely annoyed with the boy, and he turned back around and shot a glare at him.

"Is this guy always this much of an asshole?" Zack bluntly and blatantly asked, all the while he motioned his thumb in the man's direction. "I mean, he probably beats the shit out of you too, right?"

The man and woman's eyes both widened. The woman immediately shot her gaze at the ground, and Zack could feel the man's glare burning towards him, but he kept his focus on the woman. He reached out and lifted her chin gently with his hand. He made eye contact with her, giving her an expectant gaze. He was doing this all for show, but maybe the woman could muster up the courage to actually answer him before shit got ugly.

"Do not touch my wife!" the man bellowed at Zack, slapping his hand away from the woman's chin.

A few people had started to turn their heads.

Zack glared over at the man, before holding up both of his hands passively, "My bad." He paused, and watched the woman's eyes shoot back towards the ground again. He laughed lightly, "I don't know what got into me." He touched a finger to his forehead, and then moved it outwards, shaking his head slightly, "I mean, Lord knows she gets _touched _enough right?"

The man whipped his head around to glare at Zack again. His expression looked almost evil.

"Don't let me be the one to remind her how a woman _should _be handled." Zack finally frowned back, shooting the man an angry glare.

The man ripped his arm away from the woman, and took a step towards Zack. He was seething, Zack could even feel it. "But since you've forgotten yourself, I'll just remind you." He told, leaning in slightly, "_Delicately_." He said in a loud whisper.

"Let me make something clear young man." The man ground out, through clenched teeth, "You do not know me, you do not know my wife. Do _not _stand there and presume to know anything about what goes on between us!"

At this point, several people were surrounding the three-some. The angry man and the younger man were in each other's faces. The woman looked frightened to death, and still hadn't muttered a single word.

Zack smirked, and peeked his head around the man's shoulder at the woman, "You could do so much better."

That was the last straw. The man reared his fist back, and slammed it right into Zack's jaw.

The crowd's attention, which was now focused on the scene, all gasped in synchronization. The woman's hand flew over her mouth.

When Zack whipped his head back around, he was wearing a smirk, and his hand was rubbing and massaging his jaw. He laughed in a slight huff, and glanced back up at the man's furious face. "My turn."

The punch he delivered to the man in return knocked him flat to the ground. The woman screamed. It was the only sound Zack had heard her make since arrival. The crowd engulfed them, most of them roaring in anger over the man, who was having a hard time standing back up. Zack ducked his head, protecting himself from the crowd. The two security guards who were inside the lobby rushed out of the front doors and submersed themselves in the people.

Zack smushed his way out of the crowd, not stopping for anything, and stumbled up the stairs to where the short woman in the staff uniform was standing, looking extremely nervous. She kept peering over her shoulder, as if hoping the men still congregating in the lobby would hurry the hell up and get done what they were doing. Zack smirked as he stepped towards her.

The woman shakily held up a hand towards him, "I-I'm sorry sir, I…can't let you go in just yet…"

Zack's smirk widened. "Who's going to stop me? You?"

The woman swallowed hard, and took a few uncomfortable breaths.

Zack laughed slightly. "Relax. I'm kidding." He paused, "What's going on in there anyway?" he peered into the lobby curiously, innocently.

"Th…that's confiden…" the woman, as if she wasn't having a hard enough time as it was forming a sentence, broke herself off midway, stumbling back nervously as Zack advanced her until he was standing mere centimeters from her.

"Jesus." Zack continued, almost irritated. "What is with the women in Vegas? You're either a hooker or you're terrified to even stand next to a guy."

"I…" the woman attempted to reply to him again.

Zack couldn't actually tell if she was more nervous about him, about the men in the lobby, or about the roaring crowd behind them. Either way, how would he work his magic in these circumstances?

How should he approach this? Should he act completely sweet on her? Should he be dominant and arousing? Lie? What? Maybe he could do a combination of everything? Either way, he was wasting time here.

He leaned towards the woman again, and when she backed up from him yet again, he followed, until her back was against the wall. He placed both arms on both sides of her, and leaned in again. "What's it gonna take for you to let me in there?"

The woman trembled slightly, but she also seemed to be developing some annoyance towards him. "Sir, may I ask why you want to get in there so badly?"

Zack blinked a few times. Well, he couldn't tell her the truth. "Well, it's because…" he paused, as the woman blinked towards him impatiently. "My brother. He's had too much to drink, and I made the mistake of leaving him by himself." He spouted.

The woman seemed disbelieving for a brief moment.

"I was tired, and went back to our hotel room, but as soon as I got there, he called me, saying he was sick and dizzy." Zack continued, "So see? It's medical." He paused, before adding, "Kinda…"

Cody would probably be completely annoyed with him right now. And Zack had to admit, it wasn't his best work, but he couldn't waste time with this woman for much longer. What was it really going to take for her to let him in there? He glanced into the lobby for a brief moment. The men were assembling themselves into the elevators. Yeah. These were definitely Mr. Tipton's guys.

He glanced back at the woman, who had also been shifting her gaze around slightly. "Well-" she was cut off.

Zack's lips crushed hers feverishly. It was his last desperate attempt. For all he knew, Cody could be in over his head. Either that or he was pissed off and pacing around waiting for him. After a few moments, he released the woman from his oral grasp. She panted harshly, and it almost caused Zack to smirk.

"Just…just go." The woman motioned towards the doors.

Now Zack smirked. "Thanks." He patted her on the head, "You're a doll."

Thankfully, the crowd of people were still pretty loud and distracted. Else he might have had to deal with the security too, and there was no way he would have kissed either of them. He quickened his pace and flew threw the doors to the casino. The men who had been piling into the elevators were now gone, but he'd be seeing them again soon anyway. He knew there was no time to actually search for Cody in this mess of people, so he pulled out his cell, and dialed his brother's number.

**X**

Cody had no idea where he was at this point. All he knew was that he was no longer in the actual casino part of this place. And just how big was it anyway? Sure it looked big from the outside, but it felt massive now from the inside. He'd been following Lady Luck for what had seemed like forever. Winding halls and through doorways. There had been a couple of times where she had stopped dead in her tracks and glanced around as if she were lost herself. Did she even really know where she was going? He'd have to hope so. There weren't many people wondering around in these halls. It was definitely more private. He hadn't seen much security either so far, when according to the blueprints and case file, this place should be full of them.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He murmured a 'shit', as he grabbed it quickly. Sure he'd been smart enough to turn his phone on vibrate, but it was freakishly quiet in these halls, and he couldn't risk even the 'buzz' being heard, else he could be in deep water. "Hello?!" he spat out in an annoyed and loud whisper.

"Where the fuck did you go?" Zack snapped, weaving his way through the loud and bustling crowd in the casino area.

Cody huffed, "I should be asking you the same thing. What took you so long?"

"They weren't letting anyone in, I had to stage a distraction." Zack replied, growing increasingly tired of being 'elbowed' and 'bumped'. "Seriously, where are you?"

Cody blinked a few times. Good question. He exhaled almost nervously. "I have no idea."

"What?!"

"Listen Zack, something's not right…" Cody began, as his eyes scanned the now completely empty hallway. Fuck. Where was the dark angel? "There's no one here. This place was supposed to have security everywhere."

Zack blinked, racking his brain as he completely stopped in the massive crowd. His eyes scanned the area for any exits; any doors that would take him out of this noise, and put him on the path to finding his brother. "Look just… is there anywhere you can hide?"

"I'm in a hallway." Cody replied, as he spotted a doorway alongside the left. He crept quietly towards it, and grasped the doorknob in his hand. He jiggled it. Locked. His eyes darted around again.

"Well you need to use your brain to think of something. The reason why they weren't letting anyone in the entrance is because Tipton's men were in the lobby." Zack replied, as his eyes finally landed on a 'Staff Only' door.

"What?" Cody strained his whispering voice again. If what Zack was saying proved true, he wouldn't be alone for long. There'd be dangerous men. Armed men. "Are you sure?"

"Well, I mean, I can only assume. They had the lobby locked down and there were quite a few of them." Zack replied, as he strode towards the staff door.

Cody frowned. "You assume? Well that's reassuring."

Zack grumbled. "Well you know what then? Why don't you just hang out in the open hallway and find out for yourself?" he spat, irritated, "I don't know how you got to where you are, but I've got to try and figure out how the fuck to break into the 'staff' area."

Cody squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, and sighed exasperated, "Ah no, there has to be another way for you to get in. I know for a fact I didn't go through a staff door."

"I can't believe you can't remember. You haven't forgotten anything since birth." Zack replied, frustrated, as his eyes landed on two security guards pilfering around by the staff door. He let out a loud growl of frustration.

"Well, I was too busy paying attention to that girl to-" Cody began, before he was cut off.

"What?! What girl?!" Zack's voice boomed.

Cody held the phone away from his ear for a split second. "The Lady Luck, or whatever." He mumbled. Damn it.

"You're a complete jackass!" Zack roared into the phone, stopping dead in his tracks, a glare of immense anger on his face. "After everything we just went through with 'what's-her-face', you-"

"Emily." Cody cut his much angrier brother off.

"What the fuck ever!" Zack bellowed. He was seriously so tired of this. "After all that shit with _Emily_, you turn around and get yourself lost in a massive casino, in the middle of a _job_, because you are chasing after another girl?!"

"I was following my gut instinct!" Cody stood up straight in the hall, his annoyance trumping any fact that he had been previously trying to remain quiet and low key. "You're the one who's always saying that I should run with my gut instead of always stopping to think about things!"

"And you choose _now _to listen to me?!" Zack snapped back. He pulled the phone away from his ear, and let out a loud and very irritated sigh, taking a moment to breathe a couple of times, before returning to the phone call. "You know what? Just fucking keep yourself alive until I can find you." He said with his eyes closed, a quieter but angrier tone. He pushed the 'end call' button, slid his phone back into his pocket, and took a moment for himself.

Oh what he would give to deck his brother right in the jaw again. He absolutely could not stand him some times.

But another emotion was quickly drowning out his anger by an alarming rate. Panic. Cody was by himself, somewhere, with nothing to defend himself with. Tipton's men had arrived, and had gone up the elevator. There was no telling where they were. How close they could actually be to his brother.

_Fuck._

**X**

Cody glared at his phone, and the 'call ended' message it was displaying. He scoffed. "Well, that was rude." He rolled his eyes and slid his phone back into his pocket.

The hallway was still dead quiet, but he was increasingly feeling the pressure of finding somewhere to hide. Damn it all. He should have just completely ignored Zack's stupid and procrastinating attitude yesterday night. If he'd at least glanced at the file – at some of the blueprints of this building, he'd have some idea of what to do.

His eyes flashed from one end of the hallway, to the next. There was only one doorway here, and he'd already tried to open it. He was seriously going to suggest HQ offering a course on lock picking.

Of course, he and his brother had never been in this kind of situation before. They'd never done a job in a casino. They'd never had to 'break in' anywhere before. Usually they were going to a place of residence in which they'd shoot the lock off the doorknob. Surprisingly there were a lot of people who also just left their doors unlocked. But that was neither here nor there. He had no gun. He had no sense of where he was.

"Daddy, where is your office again?"

Upon hearing the dark angel's voice, Cody's eyes widened in panic. She was coming back his way. What would she do or say if she seen him? Would she come on to him again? Would she give off an indicator to whoever was on the phone of his presence? Would she alert security?

No. He couldn't get caught like this.

He ducked down and headed in the opposite direction of her voice. If he could at least get around the corner, and stay out of her eyesight, then he could resume following her.

And oh God where the hell was Zack at?

The girl's voice drew closer when he heard her 'gasp'. And no, she didn't actually gasp. She actually said, 'Gasp!' He blinked a few times.

"The 4th story?" she emitted, "I wasn't even aware that you liked to read!"

Cody frowned. What exactly was she talking about?

"Oh." She said. "That kind of storee."

Cody let his head hang a little. This girl was a real piece of work.

So she was headed to the 4th storee of the casino? Well, at least he would have an easier time now. He could call Zack back, and at least tell him where he was going. Maybe they could meet.

He pulled out his phone, and began to text Zack, when he heard a clicking noise behind him.

He froze.

"What the hell is this?" came a gruff, and heavily accented Russian voice.

Cody squeezed his eyes closed for a moment. Okay okay. What to do? What to do?

'Don't panic, numb nuts.' – Zack would say.

He took a deep breath.

"Hands where I can see them." The voice behind him ordered.

Cody glanced at his phone for a split second. How was he going to send the text to Zack now? He slowly raised his arms up.

"On your feet!"

Cody carefully pushed himself up on his feet, and slowly spun around. His eyes landed on the man with the gruff voice. He was pretty big. He had sunglasses on. His face was scarred. And he was pointing a gun directly at his face.

"Whatever is in hand, give to me." The man ordered.

Cody contemplated asking the man if he'd washed his hands anytime recently, before handing over his phone, but only knew it'd probably aid in getting him a bullet to the face for being a 'smartass'. So he held back the urge, and reluctantly handed over the phone to him.

The man snatched it away from him and glanced at it, the gunpoint never moving from Cody's face.

Cody heard the pitter-patter of footsteps from down the hall racing closer, and he closed his eyes again. That headache from earlier? Yeah. It was back.

"Oh! Hi Don!" the dark angel greeted happily as she came around the corner. Her eyes then landed on Cody, "Oh! Hi cute boy who looks like the other cute boy!"

Cody rolled his eyes. Really?

"You know this person?" Don asked gruffly, glaring at London, but keeping his gun steady.

Lady Luck nodded. "Yep! He's actually two people!"

Great. Just great.

Cody laughed nervously, "Ha… she… she doesn't know what she's talking about." He explained.

He did not need for this man, whoever he was, to be aware of the fact that someone else who looked like him was also around.

The dark angel frowned. "But-"

"Nope. Whatever you think you seen, it's not true." Cody cut her off quickly. He had to stop in this ridiculous argument and think of a way to get out of this.

Don scowled towards Cody, "Why are you here?"

Cody blinked. His mind was failing him. See, it really wasn't his strong point to make up excuses on a whim. That was a Zack thing. Oh, how he needed his brother right now. "Uh, I was just…" he trailed off.

Don pushed closer to Cody with the gun, "You just what?"

Cody stumbled back slightly, fumbling for words.

"Gasp!" Lady Luck emitted yet again. Her hand flew over her own chest as her eyes landed on Cody. She still looked slightly confused though. "You mean that other guy who looks just like you was you too?" she paused, almost baffled, "That's some magic trick!"

Cody sighed. He was going to have to completely ignore her at this point and focus his attention on giving this Don guy a good excuse as to why he was here. When Cody's eyes landed on him again, even he looked to be baffled by the girl's absent-mindedness.

"Wait. Why are you here Don?" Lady Luck inquired. "Did daddy invite you for the party too?"

Don sighed. "Is no party, it's meeting. Tipton sent me to look for you. Says you are lost. Need escort."

Cody blinked fast a few times. Mr. Tipton. Zack had been right. This was one of his guy's.

"Instead I find this guy wondering around restricted hall areas." Don continued, his focus landing back on Cody.

At this moment, Cody's phone buzzed in Don's hand. Don looked to be startled for a split second, but not much. Cody watched, waited. As soon as Don's eyes looked down at the phone, he only managed out a 'Who is Zac-' before Cody had grabbed his arm and forced the gun in it to point towards the ceiling. Don pulled the trigger.

The shot rang out through the hallways. Lady Luck screamed. Cody's eyes landed on her. 'No no no! Don't scream!' he thought mentally. He didn't have much time to react now to Don, who shook his grip off his arm, and threw Cody backwards into the wall. His breath left him as his back connected with the wall, and he grunted, but didn't have time to recover before having to duck out of the way of Don's fist, which connected with the wall just above his head.

Cody slid a little lower down the wall, and pushed off of it, grabbing Don around the waist and plunging him backwards. They both hit the floor.

Though Don was bigger, thankfully, Cody could move faster. He dove for the gun again, still grasped tightly in Don's left hand. Once he'd seized it, he attempted to pry it out of the Russian man's grip, but it proved no use. He was going to have to go with something more extreme, and hopefully just not get shot in the process.

He jumped to his feet quickly, but immediately felt Don's grip on his ankle, and found himself crashing towards the floor again. As his feet flew out from under him, his left elbow took the brunt of the fall, and he felt it crack from catching his weight. "Fuck!" he seethed, as he rolled onto his back and cradled it in his right hand tenderly. That had hurt like the fires of hell.

His eyes squeezed shut for a moment. He'd always been taught that if something like this were to happen, and time permitted, to close his eyes, and breath in and out as deeply as he could. If you did this immediately, you had a chance to get your brain to focus on the oxygen intake more so than using all of its resources to send signals to the area of injury. Because it could not ignore the oxygen. But it had to be done quickly. If one were to wait even barely too much, you'd lose your chance.

He wasn't sure it was working. Because while Cody had been hurt on the job before, it'd never been anything serious. No one usually had a chance to hurt either himself or Zack. It was always usually an object related injury. Like they'd trip and fall, as silly as it sounds, and land on broken glass. Or something that sounds ridiculous, but is easily human to do. In 4 years, they'd never been hurt seriously, or been shot a single time.

They were the best. After all.

The sounds of Lady Luck's screams startled Cody back into reality, and out of the shock his body was trying to put him in. When he opened his eyes, his vision was a bit fuzzy, but was coming into focus just enough to see Lady Luck darting off down the hallway.

Fuck.

He'd wasted too much time breathing, however, to do anything else. He felt a heavy force slam into his chest, and he coughed roughly a couple of times. He heard another click, and glanced up to see that Don was looming over him. The shoe that was sitting on his chest bore down harder, and Cody grasped it in both his hands, completely ignoring the pain of his elbow. It didn't matter at this point. He was having trouble breathing, and had to find a way to fix that problem.

Don pointed the gun at Cody's face again.

Another good thing about the human body. Injured or not, when it was in danger, when life was at risk, it kicked into survival mode. The instinct the soul and spirit would bring forth simply to survive was incredible. It was a moment where your body and mind surrendered complete control over to natural ability.

Cody knew about it. But he'd never had to use it before.

Both of his hands gripped Don's ankle, his fingers searching quickly for a vantage, and when they immediately found it, in one quick and fluid stroke, they gripped the small, thin bone along the back, applied pressure, and it snapped.

Don let out a painful cry, his eyes squeezed shut, and he pulled the trigger again.

A bullet zipped past Cody's right ear and blew a hole through the floor directly next to him, before he lifted Don's shoe off of him, and yanked it to the right, pulling the man down to the floor again. Another bullet fired off down the hallway, hitting the wall somewhere.

Cody pulled himself out from under Don's legs, seeing as he'd damn near been crushed, but caught a break when only his legs had toppled onto him, and immediately darted for the gun in Don's hand again.

Before Don could recover from what had just happened, Cody delivered a crushing stomp to the hand that he was holding the gun in. He reached down and pried Don's now broken fingers off the gun. Then, as soon as he cocked it, he whirled around and delivered a precise bullet into the back of Don's skull.

The Russian man fell silent, and still.

Cody glared down at the bigger man's lifeless body, gasping for breath, almost as if he was waiting for him to spring back to life. After all, the man was twice his size. Was his body going to kick in his instinctive survival mode one last time?

Another rule to being a hit man. Never, under any circumstances, assume someone is dead, until you had proof. Most of the time, if you shot someone in the head, it only took one bullet. Because once a bullet goes into the brain? It's over.

However, there was one time, and one time only, that he and Zack had shot someone in the head. That person had taken 2 bullets.

Cody crouched to the floor. Well, judging by the trajectory of the bullet entrance, and due to the fact that it had been fired into the back of his head as opposed to the front, Cody was assured, that Don was in fact, dead.

He stood back up, but stayed leaned over, still catching his breath. He returned to cradling his arm, even though he knew he shouldn't play into the pain.

The sound of an alarm began to blare. The lights in the hallway dimmed to a red flashing glow. Cody's eyes darted around in panic. He spotted his phone on the ground by Don's body.

Fuck! Where the hell was his brother?

Either way, he had to move. He snatched his phone off the ground, shoving it into his pocket, and with gun in hand, darted off down the hallway.

**X**

"Of course Cody. Of course." Zack spat to himself bitterly, as he shot the lock off a secured stairwell doorway. "You had to fuck something up, didn't you?"

He'd finally managed to locate a stairwell, off the side of a 'Staff Bathroom' when the alarms had sounded. He had to get to his brother and fast.

He had both his twins out. When you ascended stairs, you needed cover for your front and back. To let either side go unprotected was foolish. He heard a door fly open from far above him. His eyes flashed up the center of the stairs. Well. Here came the security.

"There he is! I see him!" a man shouted from the very top.

He looked to be quite a ways up. Either way though, Zack was dodging bullets. He flew backwards towards the wall, away from the center spiral where he knew he could be seen. Bullets clinked and ricocheted off of the railing.

Zack strode up the stairs, taking two at a time, as he readied his guns in front of him. Heavy footsteps clambered downwards, towards him. He was outnumbered for sure. Not good. As soon as he reached the second floor door, he shot the lock off of it, and quickly made an escape.

His eyes shot up and down the hallway he entered into. Looks like they hadn't quite made it to that floor yet. He pressed himself up against the wall and waited. It only took a moment.

The door flew open and a hand with a firearm came into view. He blew his bangs out of his eyes, and grabbed the hand holding the gun, twisting, cracking, breaking. The man holding the gun roared in pain, and Zack yanked him the rest of the way through the door. He immediately fired a bullet into the chest of the man who was following in behind him, and with quick action, turned and shot the man whose hand he'd just mercilessly broken. Spinning around again, he kicked the doorway backwards, smacking another man directly in the face, who'd been waiting his turn to pursue him. The man stumbled backwards, and fell over the dead body of the first one that had been shot.

Zack couldn't get stuck here. He had to keep going up. He was betting that the top floor, where the men had come from, was where he needed to be. Where Cody might be. Surrounded. Defenseless.

No. He would not let his brother die. Not here, not now.

Zack re-entered the stairwell, shooting the man he'd just pummeled in the face with the door, and immediately fell back to the wall again, as more shots were being fired from above. He fell silent. He took a moment to catch his breath.

The gunfire ceased.

"Did we get him?" came a voice from above, although it was close.

"Somebody had to of."

Footsteps drew closer.

Zack listened intently. Only two left for now? He'd take it.

He crept towards the center of the stairs, carefully and quietly.

It seemed like he was waiting forever. A smirk came to his face. Ha. These men were scared. Scared to come down and check to see if someone had in fact 'got him'.

Why the hell did these big wig people hire men who were no less than chumps? It had never made any sense to Zack. These were the men, someone was trusting their life with. But they were damned stupid, and scared as pansies. Oh well. Not his problem.

Finally, a foot came into view. Zack reached up and grabbed it, yanking it out from under the man and pulling down with all his weight, dragging the man's leg through the railing in the center. The man had hit the ground hard, wailing in panic, as his partner tried to make sense of what was happening.

Zack aimed one of his twins upwards, and fired a bullet at the other figure looming over the fallen one. Direct impact.

He had no intentions of leaving the man whose leg he'd just massacred and crippled in misery, so he finished him off as he quickly continued ascending the stairs. He had to hurry. He didn't hear any more men in the stairwell with him, for now, so maybe he could cover the ground he needed to.

The stairs stopped at the 4th floor. He backed into the corner so that if anyone were to come out the door, he'd be behind it, unseen. He crouched down to reload his weapons, and catch his breath for a brief moment. He could hear voices on the other side of the door, and it confirmed that he wasn't safe yet. Though, he'd never assumed he was. In fact, he was almost certain that this floor was crawling with more of those guys.

But he had to get to his brother as fast as he could.

In fact, he was sure he was border lining on crazy by thinking this, but at this moment, he would have given anything to have Cody at his side right now. Despite the chewing his brother would be giving him for being so 'reckless' and charging into the stairwell 'all guns blazing'.

He smirked.

No. Cody was still alive. He could feel it. That twin shit really had its perks sometimes.

But wherever he was, he really hoped he had his game face on.

**X**

Cody fought not to scream as he straightened his left arm out, applying pressure to the bottom of his elbow with his right hand.

Okay, okay. This was definitely not just a dislocation. It was a shattered break. The protective cap on the ball of his elbow was non-existent.

How in the hell did he manage to get hurt that bad, simply by falling to the ground? After the numerous training and experience he already had in these situations, why had his bone decided to fail at its strength now?

He was irritated. Aggravated. Annoyed.

He was tired of hearing that damned alarm blare.

The alarm he was certain had been set off, due to Lady Luck finally finding her 'daddy'. Mr. Tipton. She had been scared, fearful of the scuffle she'd witnessed between himself and 'Don'. Thankfully she hadn't been around for all of it. Bullets had been flying. She could have been shot in the crossfire.

But in her getting away, she'd informed the big man upstairs of his presence. He still wasn't sure if that was actually her 'daddy' or not. If he was the head honcho, he was probably just using her. He scoffed.

Men of big power had no conscience or reserve. They didn't care. Money, sex, drugs… those three things were the biggest motivator's of men like this. And as far as Cody was concerned, they were disgraceful to the human race.

Everything around him was quiet. Still. He'd managed to make it to the 3rd floor. He'd thankfully had enough ammo in Don's gun to take down a few men that had started pursuing him in a stairwell, and fortunately, had retrieved their guns as well. But he couldn't just burst into the 4th floor without a real plan. Especially since he was still battling for thought power with his brain. His brain wanted to focus on his elbow, turn him into a baby. But Cody didn't have time for that. He couldn't let it happen. He had to keep some sort of right mind about him.

Or as Zack would say – he needed to have his 'game face' on.

God, he sure did hope his brother was alright.

**X**

"Who the fuck are you?"

Zack grunted as the larger man who had been handling him tossed him forwards. He stumbled to regain his footing, his hands slightly extended upwards as he faced a man sitting behind a desk. A weak looking, scrawny white man – to be exact. The one who seemed more intimidating in fact, was the man seated to the side of the desk. He was huge, looked rough. Looked dangerous.

He gazed to the other side of the desk, where Lady Luck stood, her eyes comfortable, but confused.

So. Maybe Cody had been right. All guns blazing? Not the best idea in a hallway full of armed men. As soon as Zack had stepped inside the door, there were guns pointed at him. And sure, he had been in scrapes before, but 7 or 8 men all with their fingers on the trigger?

He couldn't make sure Cody didn't get killed, if he had gotten himself killed first. One person, the only person, he still hadn't seen. Still didn't know was okay.

The man behind the desk stood up. A glare in his eyes, as he leaned over the desk slightly. "You need to start talking, kid."

Zack felt something press into the small of his back. He closed his eyes for a brief second before exhaling.

When he opened them back up, the man behind the desk was advancing towards him. Zack held back the urge to laugh.

This guy was Mr. Tipton? Really? The picture in the file had only been a portrait type. Zack had no idea he was actually this little.

"Who sent you?" Mr. Tipton inquired, as he closed the gap between himself and Zack. "Who are you working for?" he continued in his interrogation.

Zack glared straight into his eyes. Mr. Tipton was the farthest thing from intimidating. How the heck had he managed to come to such power? Either way, he wasn't telling him shit.

A moment of silence passed between them. Then a small smirk slowly formed on Mr. Tipton's face. He turned away from Zack. He then chuckled. "Or is it, that you're here for London?"

London? Who the heck was London? Was that the code name for a drug of some kind? A weapon?

Zack watched as Mr. Tipton slowly advanced towards Lady Luck, and curled a few strands of hair through his fingers. "I hate to disappoint you, kid, but London is leaving the country for a while."

Lady Luck's eyes widened slightly, as she gazed up into Mr. Tipton's, "What? But daddy-"

"The Russian's don't quite trust that the deal I offered them is a solid one. They wanted collateral." He paused, cupping his daughter's face in his hands, "So I offered you."

Fear flooded into London's eyes, but before she could object again, her father continued, "Don't worry. They've promised to take very good care of you." He leaned in closer to her ear, "Do not disappoint me London. Do not blow this deal." He said in a cold, calm whisper.

London stayed frozen for a second, and then nodded slowly.

Zack felt fury rising inside of him. This man was evil. He could now feel it in his bones. And if he still had any kind of firearm on him, he'd risk getting shot, just to pull it out and put a bullet in Mr. Tipton's head.

"And now…" Mr. Tipton began, as he approached Zack again, "You have killed many of my men."

Zack did his best to maintain his composure as Mr. Tipton grew closer to his face and eyeballed him. "So there must be consequence." He leaned out again, and nodded towards the man Zack could only assume was standing behind him.

Mr. Tipton was handed one of Zack's twins. He blinked a few times, as Mr. Tipton gazed at the gun as if it were a thing of beauty. Well, Zack couldn't really blame him for that. It was. His twins were reliable and loyal.

"I'm sure you know what that consequence has to be." Mr. Tipton snarked, before chambering the gun.

Zack blinked as the gun rose up towards him. Well. _Fuck_. He took a deep breath.

"NO! ZACK!"

Mr. Tipton looked up, startled, but pulled the trigger.

Zack heard his name ringing through the room. He felt a sharp, numb pain fill his body as he dropped down on one of his knees. His head bobbled down towards the floor, and he began to heave and cough. Blood spewed out all over the carpet, as the sounds of gunshots filled the air around him. He seen his gun hit the floor in front of him, just as the outlines of his vision began to blur white. His hands grasped his left side.

For the first time in a long time, he was scared. When he forced himself to look down at himself, a dark, warm, crimson colored liquid was spewing out from underneath his hands. But he wasn't scared of that. He was scared, because he'd heard his brother call his name. And now bullets were flying.

He let out a painful drone as he kept his side clutched with his left hand. And with his right, he reached out and grabbed his gun.

London's screams filled the air. She ducked behind her dad's desk for shelter, as objects shattered from impact of bullets, and men dropped to the ground.

Cody had made no move to hide behind anything. All he was feeling in this moment was complete fury. He had already dropped two men. One was the man who had been standing behind his brother. The other was the man sitting in a chair beside the desk.

His eyes had landed on a third one now. He'd managed to shoot the gun out of the man's hand, just after he'd shot his brother, and now he was retreating.

"Don't you fucking run!" Cody screamed, making a dash for him.

"Cody look out!" Zack groaned out. "Behind you bro!"

Cody skidded to a halt in his pursuance of the retreating man, and whipped around towards the door, where a few men were entering. He still made no move to hide. Zack fired towards them first, getting one of them in the leg, and Cody fired behind him as he fell to the ground, getting the one directly behind him in the chest.

Zack had managed to push himself into a standing position now, and he fired a few more shots towards the men who had come through the doors.

With the three of them disposed of, Cody whipped his head back around, only to see the man who'd shot Zack, running out the back door, yanking Lady Luck along behind him. Angry as he was though, his brother was more important. He rushed to his side immediately, "Zack! Oh my God, thank God you're not dead!" he said frantically, kneeling down quickly, "Let me see it, hurry!"

Zack winced as he lifted his hand off of his wound, and as the air hit it, it only resulted in more stinging.

Cody inspected the wound fearfully, and without thinking, or warning Zack, plunged his fingers into the hole.

"AH FUCK! GOD-DAMN IT!" Zack roared angrily, as he shoved his brother off of him harshly. He panted harshly, seething mad as his eyes landed on his brother, "What the fuck?!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Cody replied immediately, holding his hands up in remorse, "I had to make sure the bullet wasn't still in there." He claimed, his eyes still looking towards the wound with concern.

Something in Cody's tone, and eyes convinced Zack to just forgive him, but it didn't mean he wasn't still pissed off over the extra pain his twin brother had just caused him. What else was new anyways?

Cody removed the jacket he'd been wearing, then the white t-shirt from under it. He moved towards Zack again, ready to shove the shirt on top of his wound, but Zack ripped it from his hand. "I'll do it, damn it." His brother spat in a pained and annoyed voice.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea. You have to make sure that-" Cody began, making a reach to retrieve the shirt back from his brother.

"Fuck. Off." Zack replied in a dangerous, deadpanned tone. Seriously, he was thankful for his brother's help, but if he shoved one more thing into his bullet wound, he was going to kick the living daylights out of him.

Cody frowned towards him, as he snatched his jacket up off of the floor and started putting it back on, "Well, _somebody's_ grumpy."

Zack huffed sarcastically, "Well forgive me for being grumpy." He retorted, as he placed the shirt over his wounded side, "Maybe it's because I've been fucking _shot_."

Cody was about to respond again, when the sounds of sirens in the distance alerted them. Cops. That was the last thing they needed right now. Cody glanced around the empty, but bloody room, "Time to go."

"We _can't_ go. We didn't get Mr. Tipton." Zack replied in a grunt, as he took a couple steps towards the man who'd been standing behind him earlier. He knelt to the ground beside him, and began to search the body. "Who by the way, is seriously a scumbag."

Cody blinked a few times, "Was he the one who just took Lady Luck out the back?"

Zack nodded. "Yeah. Lady Luck is his _daughter_."

Cody gave Zack a questioning glance as he watched his twin roll the dead body over, "What are you doing then? Let's go after him!"

"I'm not leaving without our babies." He responded in an almost annoyed tone. How dare Cody even think of that. Within another second, he had retrieved their weapons. He tossed Cody's up to him, and grabbed his additional .45, before pushing himself to his feet. "I can't move as fast as you can. So you go on ahead, and I'll be right behind you." He signaled Cody towards the door at the back of the room.

Cody felt hesitant for a moment. Last time they were separated, his brother had been shot. He didn't want to ever be split up from him again. "Zack, I don't want to leave-"

"We have to finish this job!" Zack snapped, cutting him off, "What are we going to tell HQ if we don't get this guy?" he paused for a moment, noting that his brother looked a little taken back by his sudden explode of anger towards him. "Look, I'm sorry. I just want to get this asshole." He told, "Don't worry. I'm not going to die." He assured, "I'll be right behind you." He advanced Cody, and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a quick squeeze of assurance.

Cody exhaled, before nodding. "Alright, but you seriously better not die on me."

Zack could tell his brother was worried. And it meant the world to him. "I promise."

Without another word, Cody darted off out of the back of the office room, which had now been turned into what looked like a scene from a horror movie. There was something different right now about Cody. Something hard, and cold, something dangerous. But Zack knew what it was. It'd just been a while since he'd seen it like this. Cody was completely capable of being a killer any day of the week. But today? Right now? Cody was an unstoppable force. A wrecking machine. And he felt bad for Mr. Tipton, when Cody caught up to him.

**X**

Cody blew through the door to roof access. His eyes scanned the giant rooftop, looking and listening for any signs of life that he could extinguish. The sirens were closer now, and at any moment, this entire building would be flooded with cops. He covered ground as fast as he could, alert and ready for anything that might be up here, and stopped for a moment when he noticed a black feather on the ground.

Lady Luck.

Where the heck were they? This was the roof. The only way off was down, or…

Then he heard it. The sounds of a helicopter coming closer.

No. This guy could not get away. This was a huge gig. They couldn't blow it now. Not when they had gotten so close, and with as huge of a disaster as it had been so far.

The copter zoomed towards the roof, and as it drew closer, Cody noticed that there was a problem here. His eyes widened, and he immediately took off for cover.

The large gatling guns attached to both sides of the helicopter charged, began to spin, and then rapid fire. Cody dove back into the stairwell, hitting the ground, and keeping his head down as several bullets were fired into the now closed door.

"Holy fuck." Zack murmured, as he ducked his head down, and sunk to the floor.

Cody glanced down the stairs and seen that Zack was huddled at the bottom of the short flight, and he began to edge his way down towards him. He froze whenever the gun fired again, this time, circling around the small cement building and firing at every angle.

Paint and plaster chips rained down on Cody, as he kept his head down as far as he could, though he was sure he'd managed to get down enough of the stairs to be out of range.

"What the hell is that?" Zack inquired, from his position a few stairs down.

"Helicopter." Cody replied shortly, and bluntly. He was so upset right now. This guy was going to get away. It will have marked the very first time one of them had gotten shot. The very first time they'd failed a gig. It was irritating. What made this guy so special that he thought he could ruin their permanent record?

They listened intently as the sounds of the helicopter faded away, but the sirens of the cop cars had inevitably reached their destination.

"So smart guy." Zack called up to his brother in what sounded like a tired, but lively tone, "Any idea of how we can get out of this place now?"

Cody squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. 'Think Cody, think!' he demanded himself. He was frustrated, and for the first time ever, really didn't have any idea of how they were going to get out of this building.

He knew that this wasn't all Zack's fault, but he was pissed off. They should have read that file. They should have studied it; the very moment HQ had sent it to them. Day off, or not. He'd always functioned under the impression that they were always on duty. And he'd be damned if he was ever given any kind of other impression again.

Because now they were in a mess, and he couldn't think straight.

Goddamn it.

"Well we can't go down." Zack remarked, as the sounds of voices and screams began to rumble throughout the building.

"I'm aware." Cody replied in an annoyed tone.

Well. He had one idea in mind. It was ignorant. He'd never ever under any circumstances, ever normally even give thought to something like this.

But they were really out of time now.

Really out of options.

His eyes gazed down at his brother, who now had one hand on the doorknob to the back-office entrance. He was listening intently, his face pressed against the door. He glanced at his side. The shirt that Cody had given him to hold over it was now covered in blood. Zack may not die, but he needed medical attention. His own shattered elbow be damned. He exhaled deeply.

"Alright Zack, come on." Cody called to him, and when he caught his brother's attention, he motioned for him to ascend upwards.

Zack joined Cody at his side, and the two of them walked out onto the roof.

Zack raised an eyebrow and glanced towards his brother, but he didn't say a word. Cody, who'd had his arms folded, let them drop to his side, before he strode off towards the backside edge of the building.

Zack followed him curiously, and when he seen Cody peering over the edge, he did the same. A smirk came to his face as he looked at his brother. "No way." He teased, "You're going to go through with this?"

Cody scoffed, meeting his brother's eyes with a glare, "We don't have any other choice." He climbed up on the ledge of the building. "On three."

Zack tilted his head to the side and sighed. "Alright." He crawled up the ledge, with Cody's help, before placing his hand back on his side again.

"One…" Cody started the countdown.

Zack crouched slightly, staring down. It wasn't the height that scared him. It was where they were landing. They'd have to be precise and careful, if they wanted to hit the intended target. "Two…" he followed up.

Both brothers glanced at each other. They shared a slight nod, both counted, "Three", and let themselves drop off the edge.

* * *

**AN : Well that's all for now. What did you guys think? Let me know - I'm curious to hear some opinions! : )**


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